DCP Wales Branch

Dr Kia Thomas, lecturer at the School of Psychology at Cardiff University, will be talking about recent research aimed at understanding the overrepresentation of neurodivergent and gender-diverse people amongst those with eating disorders.

This research, conducted in the general population, seeks to disentangle some of the epidemiological overlap between, autism, ADHD, and gender diversity and identify the possible contribution of each to eating behaviours and body image.

Jack Griffiths, assistant psychologist in ABUHB will be talking about his experience coaching a Welsh league football youth side and how his psychological knowledge has influenced his approach.

This talk will provide insight into life as a football coach, key reflections and what models and theories Jack has found useful in bringing success to his team.

How to take part:

You must sign-in to access the zoom link (see below).

Jack Griffiths, assistant psychologist in ABUHB will be talking about his experience coaching a Welsh league football youth side and how his psychological knowledge has influenced his approach.

This talk will provide insight into life as a football coach, key reflections and what models and theories Jack has found useful in bringing success to his team.

How to take part:

You must sign-in to access the zoom link (see below).

Dr Laura Miles, BCUHB, was recently awarded the Student Partnership Impact Award from the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) for her contribution to the North Wales Clinical Psychology Programme.

Laura will present her grounded theory study regarding how DClinPsy trainees understand what it means to 'value' lived experiences and how this can be accomplished.

How to take part:

You must sign-in to access the zoom link (see below).

Dr. Jess Hall from Cardiff University will talk about her work on rare variations on the human genome and what this can tell us about the development of neurodevelopmental, mental health, and cognitive problems.

James Houlden, assistant psychologist and media and psychology researcher, will talk about the way psychological science has been applied to maximise engagement with websites, social media, and apps, and the risk this poses to vulnerable groups.

Dr. Daniel Moxham, clinical psychologist, will talk about his DClinPsych research project into how people with psychosis experienced changes in psychological wellbeing during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic and what this can tell about this condition and how to support vulnerable groups through this period of significant social and economic change.

Professor Michaela Swales, programme director of the North Wales Clinical Psychology Training Programme and director of the British Isles DBT training team, will talk about a project aiming at benchmarking DBT outcomes in routine clinical practice against those derived from RCTs, and what this can tell us about supporting evidence-based practice in psychology.

Professor Andrew Thompson, programme director of the South Wales Clinical Psychology Training Programme and member of the DCP training and workforce committee, will talk about planned and required changes to applied psychology training in Wales over the coming years. He will focus on the importance of partnership working, and developing shared agendas, alongside health boards and service users.

Dr Jessica Atkinson: Research Assistant for BCUHB Child Clinical Psychology

Jessica Prince: Assistant Psychologists in BCUHB Children Learning Disability Service, BCUHB, North Wales

The self-harm pathway is a joint agency pathway between local authorities and BCUHB specialist CAMHS that first started in Denbighshire in 2017. It aims to provide a safe and supported response to help young people who self-harm and first come to the attention of staff in school. Jessica began her work on evaluating the pathway at the end of 2019 and Jess has recently been offering her support. Today's talk will focus on setting up the pathway, the challenges and successes as told by the experiences of the professionals involved as well as some of the quantitative data collected.

Jessica Atkinson is a Research Assistant supporting Child Clinical Psychologists with their Research across BCUHB. She obtained an honours degree in Applied Psychology from Liverpool John Moores University. She undertook her PhD in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Liverpool (UoL), where her research focused on brain development determined by MRI in preterm infants. 

During her PhD, she worked as an Assistant Psychologist and in Secondary schools as a TA and a supply teacher. Following her PhD Jessica's research projects included a patient pathway in epilepsy with the UoL and Clinical Trials both at the UoL and at the Clinical Trials Unit, University of Manchester. 

Since joining BCUHB, she has supported numerous CAMHS projects. Her role recently expanded to support clinical psychologists in all areas of child clinical psychology and she has set up a portfolio of potential projects.

Jess Prince is an Assistant Psychologist at BCUHB with dedicated time to support the Clinical Psychology Research Team. She obtained a BSc degree in Psychology at Staffordshire University, following which she completed a Masters in Abnormal and Clinical Psychology at Swansea University. Following her master's degree Jess has worked as an Assistant Psychologist in a range of services including Autism (ABA Tutor), Perinatal and CYPS Eating Disorders. Currently, Jess works in BCUHB Children's Learning Disability Service.

12:30-13:30

Dr Shelley Mccann, and Dr Jessica Woolley, both clinical psychologists who lead on the peer mentoring programme in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) will be joined by Rebecca John, peer mentor development worker in the adult psychology peer mentoring team in ABUHB.

They will discuss what peer mentoring is, how it started in ABUHB, and how peer mentor roles have been implemented into teams and services.

They will also discuss the advantages to employing peer mentors in teams, the importance of the initial and ongoing evaluations, and what has been learned.

They will reflect on their journey to this point, the challenges they have encountered and how these have been overcome, and what the future looks like.