Winners of the APT Award for Excellence in Dialectical Behavior Therapy 2018.
Below are the recipients of the APT Award for Excellence in DBT 2018. These annual awards were established to keep people 'enthused' and thinking about how they can apply training in risk assessment and management in their practice.
Cygnet Hospital Beckton, Learning Disability Service
Dawn Miller on behalf of the DBT Team
Judges’ comments: We really liked this account of adapting DBT for use in the Learning Disability Service. The description of challenges you faced and how you overcame them is certainly inspiring. We especially liked the consideration you gave to remaining loyal to the model and concepts whilst making the materials as accessible as possible and the sessions flexible to meet your group’s needs. The examples are great, we particularly liked the interactive cut-outs for the behavioral chain analysis.
Priory Group, Kemple View Psychiatric Service, Secure Unit
Katie Jennings on behalf of the DBT Team
Judges’ comments: We would certainly agree that embedding such a whole hospital approach would be daunting, but it is fantastically inspiring to hear how it can be done. The in-patient environment sounds wonderfully therapeutic with RAID and DBT approaches being used not just as techniques but as philosophies. We loved the examples of encouraging the mastery of skills such as the ‘skill of the week’ and maintenance sessions, and of course the feedback from patients and their instilled hope for the future and managing things differently.
NAViGO
Zaffer Iqbal on behalf of the DBT Service
Judges’ comments: This essay by a service user who had recently completed the DBT programme is different to our usual submissions but is powerful and inspiring. She describes important elements of the DBT programme such as her individual and group sessions, which sound well organized and established, the piece is striking however for her powerful description of emotions, the incorporated elements such as risk assessment, resulting in admission, and the encouragement and hope held by professionals and peers. We were thrilled to read of this user’s journey with DBT and in building a more rewarding life.
Rose Ward, St Andrew’s Healthcare, Men’s Medium Secure PIU
Dr Lorraine Childs, Mary Shumba, Robyn Price, Victoria Joy
Judges’ comments: We liked this account of adapting DBT for use in a medium secure neuro-rehabilitation unit, describing work with an individual young man with an acquired brain injury. The team adapted the group skills programme and explain how they ensured the material was as accessible for the patient as possible and supported with homework and feedback. We liked how the ward staff were offered training into the philosophy and aims / relevance of the DBT skills, so they supported the patient and ‘learnt together’ making this support achievable in a unit where DBT is not so commonplace. The quantitative results are striking and show the impact of tweaking the intervention to ensure it was as helpful as possible as is the hope that the patient may be transferred to a lower secure unit and his altered trajectory.
Arbury Court, Elysium Healthcare.
Specialist Service for Women with Complex Needs (low and medium secure and PICU).
The DBT Team (Roxana Zomorrody; Maria Amorim; Zoe Johnson-Marsh; Louise Kennedy; Nicola Brown; Robyn Arnold; Brooke Kesic; Jessica Newsome).
Judges’ comments: The team describe their DBT programme and the steps involved in establishing it as an embedded technique that patients are supported in throughout their admission rather than the sessions alone. The individual, skills sessions and telephone consultation service are well-established, as is the consultation team. We were especially pleased to hear that there is time for facilitators to reflect and plan properly, ensuring the skills groups are engaging and adapted to suit the groups needs, and of the follow-on work such as involving the ward staff, patients’ friends and family, celebrating achievement and a maintenance group, as well as the mindfulness being available to all. We will be interested in the further research and quantitative feedback on the impact of this DBT programme.
Calverton Hill and Priory Hospital East Midlands, Secure Services
Kristy Summers on behalf of the DBT Team
Judges comments: this is a lovely case-study illustrating the work done by an established but evolving DBT team in a secure unit. The case study includes pre and post-intervention measures for the skills groups as well as comments from the participant. We really liked the work put in pre-treatment to build a relationship and enhance commitment and attendance and the example testifies to this with the group and individual session attendance figures. The positive outcome measures and especially the quotes from the young female patient are certainly inspiring whilst the team recognizes the complex emotions and work involved for practitioners.
Cygnet Hospital Bierley, Bowling Ward (Inpatient Mental Health Service)
Dr Kelly Elsegood on behalf of the DBT Team
Judges comments: This was a later submission but we love a project relating to inspiring hope in women with complex needs on an in-patient unit anytime. And it is wonderfully inspiring, detailing strategies to improve engagement, motivation and hope in patients attending a DBT group. We liked the comments, high attendance rates, rewards and contingencies (although we suspect group attendance is often intrinsically rewarding too) but the service-user video - a recovery scrapbook - is especially hopeful and great.
DBT Courses and Resources
Running DBT Skills-Development Groups ❯
APT's Accreditation of DBT Practitioners ❯
How to apply.
These annual awards were established to keep people 'enthused' and thinking about how they can apply training in risk assessment and management in their practice. Application is simple: just 2,000 words and the preparedness to discuss what you have written. The application may be on your own behalf or on behalf of your service and each successful submission will be published on our website.
