What every psychological therapist should know about working with prescribed psychiatric drugs…
The BPS has collaborated to deliver guidance materials for psychological therapists to support them in working with issues of prescribed drug dependence.
21 June 2024
A suite of new training materials has been created to enable students to feel confident to have conversations with clients about prescribed psychiatric drugs.
The British Psychological Society has been involved in a collaborative project with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, the UK Council for Psychotherapy and the Beyond Pills All-Party Parliamentary Group (2020 – May 2024) to deliver guidance materials for psychological therapists to support them in working with issues of prescribed drug dependence.
The freely available training materials – including talks from experts, and interviews with people who had experienced problems withdrawing from psychiatric drugs – are available for use for the next academic year and will enable course providers to meet Health and Care Professions Council requirements around understanding psychopharmacology.
Dr Anne Guy, Prescribed Drug Dependence Lead for the Beyond Pills Alliance, told us 'Whilst all APPGs have been dissolved during the election period, this won't impact the availability of the training materials. They can be accessed directly by any course leader via the Guidance for Therapists website. If anyone would like to discuss the materials and how to upload them to their own institution's learning platform they can contact Dr Emma Kay at [email protected].'
