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Psychologically informed environments aim to transform acute psychiatric settings by providing person-centred, recovery-oriented care. To meet the challenges of implementing these principles, an intensive support programme, derived from the Comprehend, Cope and Connect model, was designed to promote a recovery-focused service. This study aimed to implement the programme in acute wards and explore staff perspectives on its implementation. Qualitative data were gathered from focus groups and semi-structured interviews with ward staff where it was implemented. These were conducted by interviewers with lived experience of acute services. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes from the interviews. Participants were multidisciplinary clinical staff (N = 10) from various professions, including nurses, occupational therapists, and ward managers. Themes were Positive impact on clinical work (n = 9); Importance of programme consistency (n = 7); Significant barriers to implementation (n = 6); Positive impact on patients (n = 6); Positive impact on ward environment (n = 5); Collaboration between professions (n = 5); Increased psychological mindedness of staff (n = 5); Patient barriers to using skills (n = 4); and Increased staff confidence and knowledge (n = 4). Findings indicated acceptability and enthusiasm for the programme. There appear to be clear benefits to staff engaging in psychologically informed programmes, such as increasing their confidence and improving staff unity, in addition to a positive impact on teams, working practice and patients. The findings also highlight barriers to implementation, including staffing levels and patient engagement. Further training and research is required to develop staff awareness of using psychological formulations and to engage patients in these approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As clinical psychologists we are aware of the fragility of the self and the power of emotion to overwhelm rationality. As human beings, parents and grandparents, we are aware of the threat that the climate crisis poses to the future of our planet. This knowing is brought together here, and points us towards using our clinical skills in the service of mobilising behaviour change to face up to and mitigate the impending catastrophe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of the Comprehend, Cope and Connect model in embedding a psychotherapeutic approach throughout a team, and making such an approach available to those with severe mental health problems, is outlined. The model is explained: its starting point in felt sense; its distributed model of the self, and its co-produced, trauma informed formulation that leads to new ways of coping with the internal state, which can be supported by a wider team. The way in which this makes a psychotherapeutic approach, with emphasis on the power of relationship, available to acute psychiatric and other services providing for those with severe mental health problems, is outlined. The inclusion of spirituality and its applicability to diverse populations is also covered, along with its, so far limited, research base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehend, Cope and Connect' (CCC) is an evidence-based psychological intervention for psychological crisis designed for use in inpatient settings. The aims of the current study were to gain the perspectives of multidisciplinary team (MDT) staff, patients and carers to inform the design of a potential CCC training programme for MDT staff to deliver CCC interventions. Staff, patient and carer perspectives on developing a CCC training programme were collected through video call-based group consultations and written feedback. Thematic analysis was employed to organise and explore latent themes within the data. Thirteen MDT inpatient staff and an expert patient and carer panel of four participated in the study. Feedback showed that the CCC model supported staff in understanding patients beyond labels in a patient-centred and led capacity, and that CCC was helpful in bringing clarity to crisis. Staff participants stated that learning and practicing psychological skills and encouraging confidence would be important when training staff in CCC. They identified needs to embed CCC into ward culture and integrate CCC with care planning for successful implementation of CCC in inpatient settings. The patient and carer panel focused on the needs of patients, concluding that CCC training should emphasise the need to understand patient experience, and promote compassion and empathy. These findings provide evidence for what staff, patients, and carers consider to be important when training MDT staff to deliver CCC interventions in an inpatient setting and form a foundation for implementation of CCC training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on international conference arrived at the BPS headquarters in London on 13 and 14 May 2022. Topics include venturing into the unknown like this requires an embracing of unknowing, along with pursuit of knowledge and practice; and struggling with non-ordinary realities, without reducing everything to a narrowly pathologising paradigm.

This paper provides a brief introduction to the CCC therapy approach while demonstrating how it is embedded in a transpersonal world view. Its origins, starting from inner experience and meeting specific service challenges within various NHS setting are discussed. The theoretical basis for CCC in Interacting Cognitive Subsystems is introduced, providing a non-medical explanation for psychotic and other so-called 'symptoms'. The three components of the approach are explained. 'Comprehend' covers an emotion-focused, trauma-informed, co-produced formulation. 'Cope' is about finding other ways to manage, and 'Connect' is reflected in the central place given to relationship, both with the self, within the self, with other people, and reaching out to wider, spiritual connectedness beyond the human world. The paper concludes by summarising publications, research and deployment of the approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehend, Cope, and Connect (CCC) is a third‐wave cognitive behavioural approach developed for acute mental health services. The aim of this study was to assess feasibility and acceptability of a newly developed, manualized single‐session CCC intervention delivered face‐to‐face with service users in acute and crisis psychology services in South London. The study adopted a within‐subjects pre‐post‐test design. Participants (N = 23) were recruited from five acute psychiatric wards and a crisis resolution home treatment team. Service users had a range of diagnoses of complex and severe mental health conditions, in particular mood, personality, and psychotic disorders. Feasibility data were gathered for number of times the CCC formulation was accepted, duration of CCC intervention, clinician adherence to manualised protocol, and frequency of goal‐based activity completion. Acceptability data on pre‐ and post‐CCC mood and post‐CCC helpfulness were self‐reported by participants. Findings indicated a significant increase in positive mood (large effect) and moderate–high helpfulness rating postintervention. Most participants reported goal‐based activity completion. There was high fidelity to the protocol, high percentage of acceptance of the formulation and formulation components completed, and frequent single‐session completion. Single‐session CCC appears feasible and acceptable in acute and crisis psychology services and yields formulation‐driven goal‐based activities intended to stabilize mental health crisis. High fidelity to formulation protocol suggests broader applications for single‐session CCC, for example, to support clinical staff to manage crisis situations in their work environment or to train nonpsychologist clinicians to deliver the intervention for service users. A randomized controlled trial of single‐session CCC would increase validity and generalisability of findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Service user demand and service changes, from hospital based, to community and hospital mix, within acute adult mental health services, focus the need for psychologically informed, holistic, approaches. Aims: (1) Describe and report feasibility of a psychologically led Intensive Support Programme (ISP) to meet this need. (2) Present results of a pilot evaluation of this programme. Method: ISP was implemented in four acute mental health services of the Southern Health NHS Trust, available to both inpatient and outpatient acute services. Evaluation of the service one month after data collection, illustrates operation and level of uptake across different professional roles. The programme was evaluated by assessing psychological distress (CORE-10) and confidence in self-management (Mental Health Confidence Scale) of participating service users before and after intervention. Results: The service evaluation demonstrated extensive roll out of this programme across acute services of an extensive NHS Trust. Repeated measuret-tests demonstrated significant decrease in distress (p < 0.0005) and significant increase in confidence in self-management of mental health (p < 0.0005). Conclusion: Evaluation shows that ISP can be delivered in routine care in an acute mental health service and results in improvement in self management skills and facilitation of recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses many clinical psychologists, service users and carers who have made the Faculty what it is today including Geoff Shephard, Fabian Davis and Tony Wainwright. Topics discussed includes the work of personalising and humanising mental health care, nature of mental health difficulties and their alleviation and history of engagement at the political level and collaboration with other professions.

The emotion focused formulation approach has been developed and evaluated in acute mental health services since 2004, but is being applied more broadly. Its application both as an individual and a team formulation is explored, along with its cognitive science basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My intention is to draw out a deep connection between our human wholeness and wellbeing, and the health of the earth that sustains us and all creatures with whom we share this planet. My starting points are that our self-sufficient individuality is partially illusory, and that the human mind has two fundamentally different dual ways of knowing.This cognitive model gives equal weight to self-conscious individualism, and to the reality of our interconnectedness. Recognition of these dual aspects provides a starting point for rebuilding our fractured relationship with the planet, and it has implications for psychotherapy, and for the future of us all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the results of a randomized controlled trial to assess effectiveness of an anger management group programme, employing a cognitive behavioural framework that was run by the Psychology Service. The treatment group was compared with a control group on a waiting list. The trial was performed at the Southampton CBT Service. The treatment group received a cognitive behavioural anger management programme, initially based on Novaco's approach, but with further development of the motivational components. The control group received no treatment and was on a waiting list. The Novaco Anger Assessment Scale (NAS), State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), Evaluative Beliefs Scale (EBS), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD) and the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluations (CORE) were used to measure anger, belief about self and others, anxiety and depression, and physical and psychological wellbeing. Clients in the anger management group showed statistically significant changes on STAXI, NAS, CORE and EBS subscales at the end of the therapy. The change in depression and anxiety on HAD (depression and anxiety) was not statistically significant. It was not possible to carry out analyses at follow-up due to high dropout rates. We concluded that an anger management programme using CBT was helpful in reducing anger and overall psychopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A frequent complaint by service-users of psychiatric inpatient units is the unavailability of talking therapy at precisely the time when they need to make sense of their situation. However, conventional models of cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) delivery, with set numbers of sessions and diagnostic specificity, are not well suited to the conditions of the acute ward, with variable and unpredictable lengths of stay and multiple and indistinct presentations. This pilot study describes a modification of CBT designed to deliver an effective, brief therapy in these conditions. The approach is grounded on the cognitive science-based model, interacting cognitive subsystems, and draws on dialectical behaviour therapy and other recent, mindfulness-based CBT approaches to provide a combination of simple formulation and skills-based treatment. Evaluation in the inpatient setting also presents challenges, and these have been met by choosing measures that tap into self-efficacy and confidence in the management of emotions rather than symptomatic change. The evaluation data on a small number of cases suggest the effectiveness of the approach and the need for wider testing of the model. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No Abstrct. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing application of Cognitive Therapy to the more enduring forms of psychopathology represented by the DSM-IV ‘Axis II Disorders’ has led to the piecemeal development of the discipline, and the incorporation of approaches from other therapeutic modalities, and from wider sources, such as Buddhist meditation. The present paper proposed the development of the Cognitive rationale, using as a foundation the research-based insights provided by Teasdale's ‘Interacting Cognitive Subsystem’ model (Teasdale and Barnard, 1993). By emphasizing the close relationship between the emotional (implicational) subsystem and states of bodily arousal, this restores aversive arousal states to a central place in the understanding of psychopathology, and clinical practice. The role of threatening information about the self received through early relationships in leading to chronic aversive arousal states, whether high arousal as in anxiety, or low, as in depression, in Axis II disorders, is considered. The implications of the tension between this aversive information and the basic human endeavour of constructing the self are discussed, and a clinical example is used to illustrate the therapeutic approaches suggested by this perspective. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the dialogue between retired consultant psychiatrist Larry Culliford and consultant clinical Psychologist Isabel Clarke related to mental illness and spirituality. Culliford states that the four human experience dimensions including physical, psychological, and biological are interconnected with the spiritual dimension. According to Clarke spiritual care connection is a fundamental tool in the healing process.