Mental Health training programme hopes to go national

Published: 24 August 2010

'Getting it right'

A couple of years ago at an ECA conference, the committee started to get some great presentations addressing mental health issues. Speaking to attendees, there was often consensus about the complexity of dealing with people with mental health presentations. This group of patients often appeared to have intensive needs, were sporadically catered for by services and were a common source of the breach of the 4-hour target.

With this in mind, ECA member Richard Brownhill, as part of his attendance on the RCN Political Leadership Programme, took forward the issue of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) provision in urgent care. Thanks to a grant from the Yorkshire and Humber Region In Partnership (YHIP) organisation, he developed a DVD and one-day staff training programme entitled: 'Getting it right'. The committee is happy to report that the programme has now been piloted and evaluated extremely well by frontline staff, including nurses, doctors, ambulance staff and police officers.

The ECA is hoping that there will be interest from other parts of the country to use this training for their staff. It really gets to the heart of the skills and confidence that are required to deal with this often challenging area of work. For further information, please visit the YHIP website or contact YHIP’s CAMHS Regional Development Lead Jane Sedgewick on email: jane.sedgewick@yhip.org.uk.