In the run up to IAPT Connect 2017, we’re featuring guest blogs from our speakers. Today, we hear from Jonathan Parker, Clinical Lead for the South West CYP IAPT Learning Collaborative on how a new training initiative is helping to grow the workforce for children and young people’s mental health (CYPMH) services.
“We always hope for the easy fix: the one simple change that will erase a problem in a stroke. But few things in life work this way. Instead, success requires making a hundred small steps go right – one after the other… everyone pitching in.”
Atul Gawande, Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance (2008)
Innovation can be the spark for service development, but a new project’s success relies on coherent and committed implementation. The new Wellbeing Practitioner for Children and Young People (WP-CYP) is a good example of this; an innovative idea to support improved access for CYP to evidenced-based treatments at a stage of early intervention.
WP-CYPs will deliver low intensity support and guided self-help to young people with mild to moderate anxiety or low mood, as part of the care pathway in primary care. The WP-CYP training route was introduced by HEE as part of a programme to expand the CYPMH workforce in response to recommendations made in Future in Mind (2015) and the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health (2016).
The first cohort of trainees has just completed their first chunk of training across the CYP IAPT regional learning collaboratives – their energy, courage and commitment has been amazing.
In the South West CYP IAPT learning collaborative, we’re working with 10 partnerships across the region to train 30 WP-CYPs. The combination of service diversity and an innovative new practitioner role presents unique implementation challenges. However, it also provides unique opportunities. We can learn from each other, share best practice and to take one small step at a time towards a successful and sustained implementation of this innovative, and much needed project.
To hear more about the introduction of WP-CYP to children and young people’s mental health services as part of the CYP IAPT programme, book your free place at IAPT Connect 2017.
