‘We need better services, but not always reactive services’

A clinical psychologist who helped to raise the profile of psychological professions has won this year's Distinguished Contribution to Practice Award. Dr Gita Bhutani, who works in Lancashire & South Cumbria Traumatic Stress Service, as a clinical advisor on the Associate Psychological Practitioner project, and is co-chair of the Psychological Professions Network North West, said she was 'honoured, humbled and delighted' to win the award, presented by the Practice Board.

Gita originally set out to study astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, later changing her course to physics and maths. After taking an extra course in psychology she began to realise that this was where her interest truly lay. 

'I was reaching my limits with maths so at the end of the first year I switched faculties to do psychology. I initially had no plans to do clinical psychology… if someone had said to me when I was around 18 that I'd end up doing a job where I was talking to people every day I'd have thought "Absolutely not" – it wasn't my thing. I wanted to do research and one of my lecturers, Halla Beloff a social psychologist, was brilliant and so supportive.'

Gita went on to work with Neil Brooks in Glasgow on a research project on Alzheimer's Disease and applied for training in clinical psychology. 'I thought that'd be a way of getting more into research and I'd also realised I could actually speak to people, and it wasn't quite as terrifying as I'd originally thought!'

After starting her clinical training and working in Glasgow, Gita was still drawn to research. While working in adult primary care and in older people's services in Glasgow she spotted a two-year contract in Salford which would involve research and setting up a new service. 'It was looking at a needs analysis of older people's needs in primary care and I just looked at it and thought "that's my job". I moved to Salford on this two-year contract, which was then made permanent, and I thought "Now's the time to actually do the research".'

Gita began a part-time PhD, supervised by Peter Salmon at the University of Liverpool, focused on the needs of older people in primary care with osteoarthritis. This involved comparing different interventions and using her background as a mathematician in learning to carry out structural equation modelling. 'One of my viva examiners said "Not many people would attempt this without an MRC grant of £350,000. I was completely unaware of this!'

Following her PhD in 2006, Gita started work in her current NHS trust as a Professional Lead – later called Associate Director for Psychology Services and then Director for Psychology Professions.

In 2018 Gita also took on a national secondment to the then newly established Health Education England Psychological Professions Workforce team. She and her colleagues previously founded and developed a network for psychological professionals in the North West in 2013, in part in response to a growing call to improve access to psychological therapies. The Psychological Professions Network was extended across England by 2021.

Gita also adopted the term 'Psychological Professions' to describe the family of professionals who provide psychological therapies and interventions. This new term is now widely used and supported by a wide range of psychological professionals. 

'I think this has given us a much bigger voice and supported the expansion of psychological professions. The network helped us to have a community of practice and a pool of people to draw on to get the message out there that expansion is needed and is valued by the public.'

In 2020, in response to the pandemic, Gita was requested to take on another secondment to set up the staff wellbeing and resilience hub for Lancashire and South Cumbria, which provided NHS and social care staff with psychological support and therapy. 

It included a preventative approach and set up peer-support and facilitator training for staff to help them provide support within their own teams. Alongside this, the service offered psychological therapy. 

'My colleagues were brilliant… they took about 10 days to develop a package of trauma-informed training. Then we set up our service in six months – everyone pulled together. We took our first referrals in July 2020.'

Gita says she has always been passionate about staff wellbeing. 'I don't think people go to work to be obnoxious or unkind, there's usually something else going on. This service was very much about asking how we support people through Covid. There were always going to be two answers to that question – the first is to have a service where people can refer themselves if they want help, but the other answer is the proactive, preventative work where people are able to have facilitated conversations and support.'

As with many of the wellbeing hubs, Gita's service had its funding discontinued in early 2023 – something the British Psychological Society has been campaigning against nationally. 'I still feel very strongly about staff wellbeing given the workforce challenges, the shortages, the pressure people are under, the cost of living. We need better services, but not always reactive services… there's something about being proactive as well.

'The other thing I feel strongly about is the view that staff who accessed the wellbeing hub services could've gone to NHS talking therapies. Our own research found that the severity of people's problems were not usually ones that would fit NHS talking therapies – these were people who would benefit most from proper psychologically-led, formulated therapy.'

Find out more about BPS awards and grants.