During their training students will gain clinical experience in both child and adult placement settings. See examples below:
Springfield University Hospital
Springfield University Hospital is a mental health NHS trust and the clinical placement is in a Medium Secure Forensic Unit within this for adults.
Students engage in both individual and group DMP sessions. The trainees may also do assessments; generic and discipline specific. There is ample opportunity for working alongside the professionals in Teams, attending meetings, participant observations, etc. A typical placement day would include meeting with staff and engaging in clinical work with time around this for note taking and professional development.
Trainees are expected to undertake all mandatory trainings within the NHS such as safeguarding, de-escalation, information governance and so on. There are also desired trainings and ad hoc CPD events of various kinds and lengths that they can attend, such as lectures or half day events as well as KUF trainings on personality disorder for instance.
There will be on site provision of reflective practise by a Senior DMP and line management within an Arts Psychotherapies service.
The benefits of having a DMP student are immense. It keeps the profile of the profession and the clinical caseload high. It has given more critical thinking mass in inputting to Teams and in thinking about treatment plans and client need.
Cherry Trees School
Cherry Trees is a special needs school for primary aged boys. We cater to the local community and the pool of regular primary schools in Tower Hamlets, offering a specialised provision for boys with social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH).
The clinical sessions can take the form of individual or group therapy. The students will usually have the opportunity to shadow and interview:
- Speech and Language therapist
- Child adult mental health therapist (CAMHS)
- Community officer from the ‘Docklands Outreach’
Typically the DMP student will attend the morning briefing which is a scheduling forum for all staff regarding the coming day. The DMP student will then plan for their interventions. In their free time they will join a class (away from their clients) and support the class with general learning or targeted one to one work.
We have offered safe guarding and child protection training to DMP student in the past and on site supervision is provided by the Senior/Inclusion manager.
The DMP students have provided an additional intervention to support our pupils. They come with a range of other skills that serve to support the pupils and staff outside of their clinical practice.
Randal Cremer
Randal Cremer is a two form entry Primary school, serving a diverse community in Hackney, London. We are a new placement opportunity for Goldsmiths and will be taking students again next year.
We have two DMP trainees who run 1:1 and group DMP sessions in the afternoon. During the morning sessions they shadow our Physical Literacy co-ordinator delivering her interventions in Reception and KS1. Furthermore, they also support our KS 2 pupils during their P.E. lessons. As well as delivering and observing clinical sessions the trainees have attended a Transfer review meeting for a child with Autism who was being transferred into an Educational, Health and Care plan. They were able to observe different professionals sharing ideas and advise as well as learning more about the new Code of Practice.
The trainees also organised a parent afternoon to meet with their clients parents. This was useful a useful session, parents could ask questions which the DMP trainees could answer. They also delivered a similar session to teachers, so teachers had a better understanding of their work and how this is supporting pupils. Furthermore, they are involved in lunch time activities, leading on different activities, for example the dance challenge we have during lunch time.
DMP trainees are introduced to the school’s safeguarding procedures and can attend different training sessions if possible. They feedback to the placement manager every week either face to face or via e-mail. The benefits of having DMP trainees at the school has meant extra staff to support vulnerable pupils, developing activities that will engage children to be more fit and healthy. Children receiving the therapy have more confidence, they have fewer arguments with their peers and teachers report they are more focused in class.
Kisharon
Kisharon is an organisation that supports children and adults with learning disabilities within the Jewish Orthodox community. Kisharon Adult Day Service caters for adults aged 16+ across our two sites located in Hackney and Hendon.
Students undertaking a placement in Kisharon have the opportunity to run both individual and group sessions. In order to experience the placement as a professional DMP, students are asked to attend an interview before beginning their placement and will receive a full induction before the commencement of placement which will outline mutual requirements and will include specific information relating to the client group and cultural aspects of the service.
Students attending the placement will be expected to observe the client groups for an agreed minimum period before embarking upon the referral process, give a short presentation to the staff team relating to the work they will be undertaking and attend staff meetings where possible in order to give and receive feedback where appropriate.
Typically, students spend their time liaising with staff and team leader, having individual sessions/ group sessions and will spend time between their clinical sessions to write up clinical notes. Students will also have supervision with the placement manager on a weekly/fortnightly basis and can take advantage of liaising with other therapy students from Goldsmiths from the same course, different therapy courses and different Universities in addition to employed qualified therapists that work within the setting.
The placement offers a full induction including information on learning disabilities and autism and all students are required to read through and adhere to important policies such as safeguarding, confidentiality, data protection and religious ethos. There is potential for students to be enrolled on specific courses relating to their work and this can be discussed on an individual basis.
On site supervision is provided by a qualified music therapist using a psychodynamic approach.
Kisharon has been very grateful to Goldsmiths University for having enthusiastic DMP students on placement in the adult day service who are open and willing to learning about a new client group and culture. The benefit to the organisation is that the people we support receive group and 1:1 therapy sessions as part of their weekly programme, the staff have gained a greater understanding of the therapeutic processes and interventions that can support people both in and out of the therapeutic space and have had positive repercussions on the lives of the people we support.
Community Recovery Service for Older People
Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust provides a comprehensive range Mental Health Services to the residents of Camden and Islington. For a comprehensive list of services please visit our website. The Community Recovery Service for Older People is part of Services for Aging and Mental Health, a speciality that includes Community Mental Health Teams, acute inpatient wards, Crisis team and specialist dementia services. Camden and Islington are diverse multi-cultural inner city London Boroughs and we offer a supportive therapeutic environment providing assessment and treatment to older adults with a range of mental health issues. We are skilled in working with people experiencing, depression, anxiety, psychosis and other serious mental health concerns particularly when complicated by poor physical health.
We are a day service so trainees working at CRSOP can run sessions during the morning, lunch time or the afternoon group time slot. It is an ideal service to gain group experience and trainees working here have run small groups with 4+ service users or taken the whole group 7+ service users. These have worked well. Students have also been able to work individually with patients and could see up to 3 if not running a group or one or two if running a group.
Trainees are based in our Multi-Disciplinary Team Office and will work closely with members of the MDT, i.e. Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Psychiatrists, Art Therapist, Psychologist, exercise practitioner and Support Worker. We are a small and supportive team of highly skilled mental health professionals who have a good understanding of psychodynamic approaches and groups whilst based in a busy frontline service for older adults with severe and enduring mental illness. Trainees are involved in all team meetings both business and clinical and will have the opportunity to take part in other group sessions run for service users. In the past trainees have also taken part in social events such as outings and attending the Christmas party.
Students receive training to use our electronic Note system ‘Care Notes’ and mandatory training in Health and safety, hand hygiene, fire, manual handling, safeguarding and information governance. C&I run a comprehensive programme of training for all employees and once an on honorary contract has been set up for the trainee they can access courses run by our Learning and Development Department. Attending would be dependent on time constraints of clinical work whilst on placement.
Management supervision is provided by the placement manager onsite on a regular basis, she is an Occupational Therapist with an interest in and experience of Psychodynamic group work. In her absence the service manager, also an Occupational Therapist by training, provides supervision. The MDT members are available to offer informal supervision and are a supportive team.
DMP trainees bring a new perspective on working with our service users adding a non-verbal as well as verbal dimension. We are a team that welcomes new perspectives and believe in offering a diverse range of therapeutic interventions to support our service users in their journey to recovery.