In recent years the psychological professions have seen significant change . The NHS Long Term Plan set out ambitious proposals to rapidly expand access to psychological therapies and interventions in England . This transformation required significant workforce expansion , leading to a psychological professions workforce growth of 65 per cent between March 2020 and December 2023 . Growth ambitions continue , with a further 24,000-26,000 posts projected by 2037 , almost doubling the size of the current workforce . This transformation has included the creation of a variety of new roles across the three workforce groupings ( psychologist , psychological therapist and psychological practitioner ) designed to deliver different levels of treatment intensity and psychologically informed interventions in a
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range of settings .
Mental health and wellbeing practitioner ( MHWP ) is one new ‘ practitioner ’ role , introduced in 2022 . Although intended to work in secondary care adult community mental health services as part of the national Community Mental Health Transformation programme , spare capacity on MHWP training courses was offered to NHS drug and alcohol services for the second cohort in 2023 .
Course fees and 12-month training salary were met by NHS England as part of the training offer , conditional on the post being maintained post-qualification . Further pilots have since commenced in the West Midlands gambling harms service and in some prisons .
GREAT FIT Dr Luke Mitcheson , consultant clinical psychologist for Lambeth Drug and Alcohol Service ( working for South London
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and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust – SlaM ) first heard about the roles through training places being offered across secondary care mental health provision within his trust .
‘ The interventions delivered seemed a great fit for drug and alcohol services ,’ he says . ‘ There ’ s undoubtedly a real need to meet the psychological needs of our clients – roughly 60-70 per cent have underlying mental health problems , largely depression , anxiety or mood disorders . Our client group often do not meet entry criteria for NHS talking therapies for anxiety and depression , or for secondary care mental health services .’
SLaM recruited one trainee MHWP into their Lambeth service , a post secured by Vincent Heavey , who was among the first MHWPs to complete training . Coming from a lived experience background , after entering recovery Vincent progressed from volunteering
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to working as a recovery worker . ‘ I did a master ’ s in addiction psychology and counselling while still working as a recovery worker ,’ he says . ‘ Then this opportunity attracted me , because it was pulling me into psychology but still within a substance misuse context . From recovery worker to a mental health worker , there were a lot of changes .’
‘ Vincent carries a caseload , but each client also has a keyworker ,’ explains Luke . ‘ He has a specialism – it ’ s an adjunct to keyworking . The keyworker might lean back a little while Vincent leans in . Vincent has been a catalyst for us slightly flexing our model by delivering psychological wellbeing workshops that are skillsbased , dealing with low mood , emotional regulation , and loss . Clients trust us .
‘ Getting mental health support while they ’ re here is very helpful to their recovery ,’ he
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