Posted on: 11 November 2022
To mark Psychological Professions Week (14 to 18 November) we held a celebratory event to talk about the different psychological professions across the Trust, the work they do and how they contribute to our teams.
The week is an annual celebration started by the Psychological Professions Network, a group of psychological professionals across the country. The Network is a family of twelve professions, and here in CNWL we employ people from each of these fields.
In his opening, CNWL’s Director of Therapies, Ryan Kemp said “We want to bring together a collective voice that can contribute to innovation and development for psychological professions. It’s an opportunity to see how these professions work together, share resources and advocate for the type of care we want to see.”
Joining us for a panel discussion was CNWL’s Chief Psychologist, Dr Christopher Whitely and our Head of Psychotherapy, Melinda Schneider, as well as Claire Grant, Head of Art Psychotherapy. They spoke about their aspirations for a psychological network within the Trust, and how the professions already embody this alliance.
Melinda said: “During Covid, the professional boundaries between different groups became unimportant because all we wanted to do was share our resources to do the best for our patients. The only way that happened was through huge amounts of collaboration. This is very much in the spirit of the psychological professions network.”
In conversation with…
Including two guest speakers, we shared a conversation with Dr Adrian Whittington, Clinical Lead for Psychological Professions for NHS England and Health Education England.
Adrian spoke about driving change, and his vision for psychological therapies. “We want to create a more psychological NHS. We know that those who could benefit from a psychological approach to their care currently can’t access that. I come to work everyday because I want that to change.”
Our second guest speaker was Dr Charlotte Benjamin, the Chief Medical Officer for the North West London Integrated Care Board. She shared her thoughts on psychological professions. “We won’t get there if we work alone. We’ll only get there if work smartly, collaboratively together.”
Ending the event, Dr Christopher Whitely said: “It was great to see the range and rich variety of psychological professionals we have in the Trust and the wealth of skill and experience they bring collectively to making lives better for our service users, their families and communities. I am so proud to have such a group of wonderful colleagues.”
In between presentations we shared a series of films recorded by staff, showing the impact and value of their roles. We got a glimpse into the work of our dance and music therapists, psychologists and psychotherapists and what they enjoy most. Watch this here: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/769813446
The event was recorded, and you can watch this back by clicking this link.