Trust prepares for mental health training trial

South West Yorkshire Mental Health trust has a chance to shape mental health work nationally, as one of just three organisations that will try out a new national training package for NHS mental health staff.

The trust, which provides mental health and learning disability services to people in Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield, will be trialling training to support the care programme approach: the process of assessing and delivering care to people who use NHS mental health services.

This has recently been reviewed to make sure every person receiving treatment, care and support from secondary mental health services gets high quality care.

The trial will involve staff from across the organisation attending training days this month. Those participants will then take part in a comprehensive evaluation process to assess the quality of the training.

The process of trialling the new training package is being run by Lincoln University and the Department of Health. The aim of the trial is to approve the new training package so it can be rolled out to NHS mental health trusts nationally.

Trust learning and development manager Jackie Davis says: “This is a unique opportunity for the trust and its partners to be involved at the outset of a highly influential project that will eventually impact on mental health trusts across the country. It also gives us the chance to shape the content of the new care programme approach training package.”