Held during Psychological Professions Week, we supported the first event for the new North London NHS Foundation trust dedicated to psychological research, sharing ideas on how to get started and overcome barriers to research.
This symposium brought together researchers, clinicians, and trainees working across the partnership and in collaboration with University College London to explore the cutting-edge research psychologists lead and support and to share insights on integrating research into clinical practice.
Attendees were welcomed by the trust's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Vincent Kirchner via video, and Head of the Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology department, University College London at UCL, Prof Steve Pilling who set the tone for the day with a message on the importance of research to advancing practice and benefiting service users. The trust's Director of Research, Lynis Lewis, chaired the morning and provided background on the work of the trust's 5 year research strategy.
The day was led by Dr Rana Rashed, Director of Psychological Therapies and Prof Penny Rapaport, UCL Professor of Psychological Interventions in Dementia and Honorary Clinical Psychologist. Penny reflected on the day:
“This was such an inspiring event, it was great to hear about the diverse and creative ways that Trust Psychologists are embedding research within their work to improve outcomes for service users. I was particularly excited by the energy and enthusiasm in the room, and I hope that this will be the start of new collaborations and research innovation across the Trust and I look forward to the next steps.”
Rana added the following observations:
“The Psychological Professions Research launch was a brilliant event to have during the Psychological Professions Week. It brought together colleagues from all backgrounds with a shared passion for research and improvement. We heard from excellent presenters and the day left everyone excited about the opportunities for collaboration and developing new initiatives with our R&D and UCL partners.”
The slides from the day are available here:
Please note you will need an NHS account to view these.
Becky Gould: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for older people with treatment-resistant generalised anxiety disorder
Josh Buckman: The power of collaborative networks and shared data to personalise care and improve outcomes
Sara Boulter: Research in secure settings: challenges, opportunities & implications for policy and clinical practice
Vaughan Bell: Supervising a UCL DClinPsy doctoral research project
Erasmo Tacconelli: Service-related research – A coordinated approach to achieve impact