Through their research, the team developed a training programme that would facilitate mental health
nurses in the delivery of key Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) interventions.
This training programme was modelled on the Structured Psychological Interventions In Teams
(SPIRIT), delivered in Scotland and Canada since 2001.
From September 2016, Anne and Colette were instrumental in the development and delivery of this
training programme, which is also supported by clinical supervision, facilitated by Colette, to ensure
learning is embedded in practice.
Following the initial training of a cohort of staff, Anne and Colette employed quality improvement
methodologies, learned through the Trust's SQE project, to measure the impact on nursing practice.
In doing so, they reviewed the records of patients and demonstrated that psychological therapy skills
were much more significantly evidenced in the cohort of staff trained in key CBT interventions than in
the records of staff who were yet to undertake the training programme.
This illustrated that nurses who had received the training were deploying their newly learned skills to
deliver more effective mental health care and treatment.
Given this initial success, the programme has been extended to all Mental Health Wards and
Acute Mental Health Services through which there has been a significant increase in the delivery of
evidenced based psychological interventions.
The training has been rolled out across the Mental Health Programme of Care to many more
practitioners. In addition, the project has been incorporated in a regional review of the psychological
therapies in mental health nursing.
Colette and Anne hope to use the grant to conduct further research into innovative ways to deliver
care and treatment, including the use of E-health to improve patient outcomes.
(L - R) William Delaney, Anne Gordon,
Colette Reynolds, Emma Pringle and
Damien Brannigan.
Mental Health 28
The Mental Health Nursing
Team who attended the
Burdett Trust Awards
Ceremony.