Category: mental health

Research Project on Trainee Counsellors is Looking for Research Participants

Project: Free Labour and precarity in mental health provision: trainee counsellor’s experiences across the UK.

Researchers: We are Dr Mariya Ivancheva, Strathclyde University and Dr Jennifer O’Neil, Edinburgh Napier University. We are Education, Work and Employment researchers. Mariya has a counselling background and Jennifer has researched/published on counselling practitioners working experiences previously.

Participants: We are interested in interviewing trainee counsellors on accredited postgraduate programmes. You will have the opportunity to discuss your experiences of training, placement and transition to employment and professional career in the UK context. Your views are important in informing this research and shaping future practice.

Research: This project, sponsored by BACP, investigates the structural conditions of counselling placements in the UK through the lived experiences of trainee counsellors and insight into the trainee programmes rationale and structure. We aim  to inform future training and placement design in a way that captures trainee counsellors’ voices and illuminates the structural challenges they experience  within a dynamically developing professional field.

Data: All data will be anonymised and saved following GDPR protocols. The findings from the interviews will be published as a policy brief, presented at conferences and in journal articles. They  will serve as  key documents in a knowledge exchange programme with diverse stakeholders to help formulate policy demands for improved funding and placement design in the sector.

Information: Please contact us at J.Oneil@napier.ac.uk and M.Ivancheva@strath.ac.uk if you would like to take part and/or have any further questions.

Ethics: This project has full ethical approval from the University of Strathclyde. For more information, please contact ethics@strathclyde.ac.uk

The Acceptability of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for Autistic adults: A mixed-method study with autistic adults and clinicians.

This blog post was written by PhD student Chloe Kennedy. If you would like to find out more, please contact here.

In the UK, there are around 700,000 autistic people (National Autistic Society). Research shows that autistic people are at increased risk of experiencing a co-occurring disorder, such as anxiety (Hollocks et al., 2019).

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is considered the ideal treatment for such disorders (Clark, 2011), but may be less effective for autistic adults than the general population or autistic children (Weston, Hodgekins & Langdon, 2016).

Acceptability, known as the extent to which people delivering or receiving an intervention consider it to be appropriate (Sehkon et al., 2017), can influence intervention uptake, adherence, effectiveness and implementation. However, our scoping review showed that acceptability is rarely a primary research aim, typically only measured in part and research lacks use of appropriate theory. So, there is need for a theory-driven study focusing on CBT acceptability in real-world practice.

This PhD project thus aims to identify the extent to which CBT for autistic adults is (un)acceptable to autistic adults and clinicians in routine practice, and to understand why it is acceptable/unacceptable to consider potential adaptions to CBT. The study aims to achieve this through an acceptability-specific online survey with optional interviews and focus groups.

The findings from this could help in development of evidence-based adaptions to CBT for autistic adults and improve understanding of CBT acceptability from both sides of the therapy experience. The study is now open for recruitment and we would love to hear from all autistic adults and clinicians with experience of delivering or receiving CBT that can participate to make sure the potential impact of this project becomes a reality.

 

National Autistic Society. (no date). What is Autism? https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/what-is-autism

Hollocks, M. J., Lerh, J. W., Magiati, I., Meiser-Stedman, R., & Brugha, T. S. (2019). Anxiety and depression in adults with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological medicine, 49(4), 559-572.

Clark, D. M. (2011). Implementing NICE guidelines for the psychological treatment of depression and anxiety disorders: the IAPT experience. International review of psychiatry, 23(4), 318-327.

Weston, L., Hodgekins, J., & Langdon, P. E. (2016). Effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy with people who have autistic spectrum disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical psychology review, 49, 41-54.

Sekhon, M., Cartwright, M., & Francis, J. J. (2017). Acceptability of healthcare interventions: an overview of reviews and development of a theoretical framework. BMC health services research, 17(1), 1-13.

The Future of Mental Health Law: A Comparative Analysis of Law Reform Debates in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, England & Wales

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is an international human rights treaty which came into force in May 2008. It requires that parties to the convention promote, protect and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities.

Since the adoption of the Convention, many countries around the world have sought to reform their mental health laws, policies and services so they align with the CRPD. This includes engagement with the principles derived from the CRPD and adoption or amendment of relevant laws and policies. There are differences, however, across countries and authorities with respect to engagement and interpretation of human rights obligations and how mental health law and the promotion of the human right to mental health looks. Human rights arguments, along with rising rates of compulsory mental health treatment, have prompted major reviews of mental health laws across the United Kingdom and beyond.

Professor Penelope Weller is working on a project which will analyse the current law reform debates in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland. Across these countries, all have reviewed the existing legislation and are at varying stages of reform.

Reform status across the UK and Republic of Ireland 

In Scotland, the Scottish mental health law review (Scott review) was completed in 2022 and responded to in June 2023 by Scottish Government.[1] The Scottish Government announced in 2023 a programme to implement the new approach over a period of 10 years.

In England and Wales, following the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983 (Wessely Review), the Reforming the Mental Health Act white paper was published in August 2021. The Government is due to develop a new bill, but the timeframe for this remains unclear.[2]

In Northern Ireland, the Mental Capacity Act (NI) 2016 fuses together mental capacity and mental health law, as recommended by the Bamford Review of mental health and learning disability. [3][4] The Act is yet to be fully implemented.

In Ireland, Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 came into force in April 2023.[5] An expert review of Mental Health Act 2001 was completed in 2014. In 2021 the government published a Draft Heads of a Bill to amend the Mental Health Act, with reform of the Mental Health Act 2001 due in 2023.

How we realise human rights for those with psychosocial disabilities is to be addressed in mental health law has become the focus of global reform. In October 2023, WHO-OHCHR published its guidance on mental health, human rights and legislation.[6] The guidance recognises that the full implementation of a human rights approach in mental health law may take some time to achieve. While significant change is underway, it is important to assess whether the reforms in each jurisdiction are moving toward the principles espoused by WHO and the United Nations. What is clear is that ongoing reform will be necessary to achieve the paradigm shift in law that is envisaged.

About Professor Penelope Weller

Penelope joined the Centre for Mental Health Practice, Policy and Law Research at the end of August and is at Edinburgh Napier as a Visiting Academic. She is a law professor from RMIT University in Melbourne and an international expert in the field of Human Rights Law, Health Law, Mental Health and Capacity Law and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

Whilst here, Penelope is conducting a review in collaboration with Professor Jill Stavert on reform of mental health law across the UK, funded by the British Academy.

References

[1] What are the next steps? – Scottish mental health law review: our response – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

[2] Reforming the Mental Health Act white paper 2021 | Local Government Association

[3] Mental Capacity Act 2016 | Department of Health (health-ni.gov.uk)

[4] Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability | Department of Health (health-ni.gov.uk)

[5] gov.ie – Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 (www.gov.ie)

[6] Mental health, human rights and legislation: guidance and practice. Geneva: World Health Organization and the United Nations (represented by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights); 2023