Professional Training

The training package for professionals will enable general practitioners and primary care nursing staff as well as practice managers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the clinical characteristics of this specific patient population and their corresponding care needs.

Our objectives are to:

• Disseminate the findings of the Health Foundation funded clinical open trial
• Raise awareness amongst major stakeholders in respect of the scale of the problem, associated burden to the health economy, specific clinical needs of the patient population and possible solutions in terms of care pathway developments
• Support commissioners in respect of setting up a novel and innovative care pathway that combines clinical and cost effectiveness and stands good chances of reducing expenditure
• Gather a group of interested and dedicated GP mental health leads in order to develop champions for further spreading/implementation
• Develop an information and networking platform for both clinical staff and service users

By providing teaching and training for primary care providers and cost/clinical effectiveness and implementation information for staff, the project will be spreading improvements achieved in the original context of an East-London pilot trial. In doing so, we will embed those findings in the context of the wider evidence base relevant to providing clinical and cost effective care pathways for this particular patient group. The teaching and training package will include:

• Guidance on the logistics and technical/staffing requirements for local implementation of the care pathway and a cost-benefit analysis for an invest-to-save initiative. This will include an in-depth analysis of barriers and enablers for successful implementation of the care pathway.
• Training for providers that will educate general practitioners and primary care nursing staff as well as practice managers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the nature of the clinical characteristics of the specific patient population and their corresponding care needs:
  • modules regarding effective clinical engagement skills for this patient group with specific examples of solution focused / motivational interviewing;
  • training in a tailor made psychoeducation tool and delivery of corresponding teaching materials, patient leaflets and handouts.