Training in CAMHS
Within CAMHS Academy in Hampshire and Isle of Wight
Gavin Barret - Education Mental Health Practitioner
Not long after beginning the EMHP Low Intensity training in January 2023, I remember talking to colleagues about the year ahead. I felt a little daunted by the prospect of the intensity of the training year but also excited by the wealth of new learning and clinical experiences that lay ahead. I drew great encouragement from my new colleagues’ reassurance that they had been through the same process and were here to support my trainee colleagues and I to succeed. This strong sense of camaraderie and teamwork played such a key role for me personally in navigating the challenges of the trainee year. Coming from a mental health background, the next stage in my career development was to secure a place on a CBT-based training programme. Having conversations with colleagues about their experiences of the role and the empowering skills-based nature of the interventions I would be learning and practicing, served only to confirm my decision to embark on the trainee year.
The start of training followed a natural progression – beginning with teaching on assessment and therapeutic skills and working towards the assessment OSCE, after which we were able to begin assessing and working with young people and their families. Reflecting back on preparing for the OSCE and my first assessment of a young person, I drew some comfort from the rigorous nature of the training - being taught to create a detailed assessment framework to apply in practice. As I moved through the trainee year, I became increasingly confident in working flexibly to meet young peoples’ assessment needs – whilst retaining the core framework required. A key part of building this confidence through assessment and into delivering treatment, has been the use of frequent supervision. Learning with and from others has been central to developing my clinical skills - with discussion and role play around clinical questions brought by my colleagues and I to Case Management Supervision, having proven particularly valuable in developing my clinical skills and therapeutic approach.
I remember how much I was looking forward last year to beginning clinical work – to taking my new skills I had been developing across the core treatments and beginning to put them into practice. It was lovely and felt really empowering to start to see young people and their parents develop their new skills and confidence and to begin to see the limiting impact of their presenting problem diminish. Over the year, I have grown in skills and confidence to support families to problem solve barriers to engagement. I have also grown in confidence in managing distress in sessions and have developed an increasing appreciation of the value of ‘sitting with silence’ in session. As with so many other areas of clinical practice, talking to colleagues throughout the year about how they approach aspects of the role such as these, has added practical depth to the theory and teaching that as trainees, was our starting point.
At the start of the training year, I experienced some uncertainty regarding the Whole School Approach (WSA) aspect of the role - although the opportunity to be part of affecting positive change in the mental health of whole school communities, was a key reason for applying to the role. My uncertainty centred around not coming from an education background and having very little knowledge of how schools work. As I started to shadow colleagues in WSA work and was allocated my own schools, this initial uncertainty soon reduced. I found joining colleagues in WSA work in their link schools – for example, for staff training, school assemblies, particularly helpful in broadening my knowledge and understanding of WSA at work in varied schools in the city. This is, I think, a particular strength of this service – sharing experiences and best practice and encouraging schools to do the same. Being joined by senior members of the team to begin with for school consultation was also key in helping me to feel more confident in the process.
Having recently qualified as an EMHP, I have found moving from being a trainee to a qualified practitioner, really quite a seamless process. Throughout the trainee year, it felt that responsibilities were built on in a manageable way and this has continued into qualifying. There continue to be many opportunities to learn from each other and I look forward to this expanding even further as we work closer with and continue to learn from our MHST colleagues in Southampton, as Project Fusion launches. Central to my experiences this past year and a half is the focus with which I began this reflection – the support of all my MHST colleagues and learning from their practice - which really has been instrumental in developing my skills and confidence as an Education Mental Health Practitioner
Gavin Barrett
Education Mental Health Practitioner
June 2024
