PPN NW Newsletter

Thursday, 17th April 2025

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Welcome to the latest edition of the Psychological Professions Network North West newsletter. We aim to bring you the latest updates about our work to join up psychological professionals, associated stakeholders, carers and experts by experience in the region. 

NW LOCAL HIGHLIGHT

PPN Member Communication Feedback Survey – Extension!

We’re extending our communication feedback survey – please let us know what you think about how we communicate with you and what you’d like to see in the future! We’d love to hear from you! You can fill in the survey here.

The survey now closes on the 18^th May 2025.

Please note, more questions appear depending upon your responses.

A Day in the life of...  

SPOTLIGHT ON:  Dr Louise Roper – Principal Health Psychologist

Q: What is your name and job title? 
A:  Dr Louise Roper, Principal Health Psychologist at Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital, Honorary Lecturer at University of Liverpool, Director of Calderstones Consultancy practice, and Co-Lead for the PPN Physical Health stream of work in the North west.

Q: Tell us about your role, and a brief description of what you do?
A:  As Principal Health Psychologist at LHCH I support staff wellbeing by seeing staff who are struggling with physical or mental health, working on building psychological safety throughout the hospital, and improving the culture through initiatives such as debriefing after traumatic events, and working on psychologically friendly policies with senior people in the hospital. In UoL, I supervise PhD students, DClin trainees and teach Psychology and I’m involved in NIHR funded projects such as one about Fatty Liver Disease and another about device use for people with Lung conditions. In my private practice I work with clients who have long term health conditions or chronic illness to support them to adapt, cope and manage their physical illnesses more successfully. I also work with charities and organisations in improving psychological access for clients of the charities or training staff. Three recent examples are working with the Armed Forces organisations in the north west, working with the Commonwealth Pharmacist Association in Africa, and working with Cardiomyopathy UK.

Q: What do you like most about your role?
A: I love the variety of work within Health Psychology, the flexibility I have, and the chance to make a difference to peoples lives.

Q: What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
A:  I have been lucky to have fantastic supervisors throughout my career, in both academia where I spent over 15 years, and in the NHS where I’ve been since 2019. They know their stuff and I learn so much from them. I suppose one piece of advice is to always keep learning and keep sharing that knowledge. I particularly enjoy supervising the wonderful Trainee Health Psychologists who impress me so much with their resilience.

Q: What’s your one top tip when remote or home working?
A: I have remote worked for so long now, almost exclusively since Covid-19, so my tips are to treat it like any other day in work. Get up and dressed, start and finish at usual times, eat at usual times, have a space to keep your things, and ideally have a door that can be closed at the end of the day. Utilise office hours (academics are typically terrible at this; the NHS culture is much better) and use the online networks and supervision as you would if working face to face. It doesn’t need to be lonely or isolating.

Q: What things do you do to look after your health and wellbeing?
A:  I love and I am very good at sleeping, so I look after myself by getting to bed by 10pm each night. I enjoy taking my annual leave to travel with my family and friends, and I enjoy practicing yoga and going skiing in the winter. I work part time so I can spend time with family and take my children to their after school clubs and try and make them decent food to eat. I only say yes to projects that I think I will enjoy, and work with people I think I can help; both of these things are privileges, and it wasn’t always this way, although it helps my wellbeing immeasurably that I can now choose this.

UPCOMING PPN EVENTS - April & May 2025

TRAINEE ROUTES INTO HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
🗓️  Tuesday 22nd April 10:00 – 11:00 (remote)
To join the community of practice and find out more about this event click here

LUNCH & LEARN:  GENETIC COUNSELLING WEBINAR
🗓️  Friday 25th April 12:30 – 13:30 (remote)
To register for the event click here

PROMOTING PSYCHOLOGICALLY INFORMED CARE POST STROKE
🗓️  Wednesday 7^th May 09:00 – 10:00 (remote)
To join the community of practice and find out more about this event click here

TALKING THERAPIES:  LEADERSHIP & INNOVATION FORUM
🗓️  Thursday 1st May 09:30 – 13:00 (remote)
To register for the event click here.

NATIONAL NEWS

Staying safe from suicide: Best practice guidance for safety assessment, formulation and management

The NHS has published new ‘wrap around’ suicide prevention guidance which will help clinicians provide more personalised care for patients struggling with suicidal feelings.

The guidance will help providers move away from the previous risk stratification used to predict a person’s risk of taking their own life, replacing it with a far more personal approach.

The guidance applies to all mental health practitioners in England. It complements existing guidance for inpatient services.

You can find the new guidance here.

EDI CALENDAR

Stress Awareness Month

This month is Stress Awareness Month. This is an annual event that has been in place every April since 1992. It is dedicated to increasing public awareness about the causes and cures of stress. This year’s theme is #LeadWithLove, which encourages us to approach ourselves and others with kindness, compassion, and acceptance, no matter the challenges we face.

You can find out more about how to get involved here.

ACADEMIC ARTICLE

Role of Personal Reflection in Enhancing Therapeutic Practice

Between personal and professional involvement: A qualitative interview study on insights of novice and experienced therapists in Alliance ruptures

This recent study explored how therapists with varying levels of experience respond to alliance ruptures in therapy. The findings highlight the importance of incorporating personal reflection into professional training and practice to enhance therapeutic effectiveness. Access the article here.

TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

PERINATAL MENTAL HEALTH BIRTH TRAUMA - NEW COURSE

Supporting patients who have experienced had a traumatic experience during birth is the aim of new eLearning on Perinatal Mental Health Birth Trauma.

Three new learning modules build on a trauma informed approach to further explore birth trauma specifically and have been added to the Perinatal Mental Health (PMH) programme on the eLearning for healthcare (elfh) hub. They are suitable for all professionals involved in perinatal care.

 To find out more and to access the course visit the Perinatal Mental Health programme page

REFUGEE RESOURCE HUB - A GRASSROOTS KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE EVENT

This event is for: Refugee organisations and the refugee community and relevant stakeholders in Liverpool to share priorities and key issues University of Liverpool staff and students to develop meaningful partnerships and grassroot research reflecting priorities of refugee communities Programme: Key Refugee Sector Issues - Ewan Roberts, (Centre Manager Asylum Link) Need for Robust Data – Lal Bakht Sharifi (Asylum Link) Updates on University Contributions to Understanding Inequality Table-based Discussion & Feedback

Date:     Friday 25^th April 2025
Time:    09:30 (refreshments)
             10:00 – 12:00 start/end
Where: Events Space, School of Law & Social Justice,
             University of Liverpool, L69 7ZR

Contributors include academic staff, Widening Participation, Asylum Link Merseyside, Merseyside Refugee Support Network.

For more information: Email Hbullen@liverpool.ac.uk

RESEARCH REQUEST

UpLift-X Research Project

The Northern NHS Talking Therapies Practice Research Network are looking to collaborate with NHS Talking Therapies Services on a new research project called UpLift-X, a brief description of which is below. More information about the study can be found on the project website.

Aim: To evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of digitally enabled group CBT.

Design: Randomised controlled trial.

Intervention: Digitally-enabled (online) group therapy based on an evidence-based transdiagnostic CBT protocol.

Participants: Patients with common mental health problems (and comorbidities) who are eligible for high intensity CBT.

Therapists: Qualified CBT therapists working in NHS Talking Therapies Services, who will be offered specialist training and supervision to deliver transdiagnostic CBT protocol.

Hypothesis: Digitally enabled group CBT will be more cost-effective than individually-delivered CBT, and will help to reduce waiting times for high intensity therapy.

The study welcomes colleagues working in NHS Talking Therapies Services to make contact if they would like to collaborate on this project. 

Please email: j.delgadillo@sheffield.ac.uk; m.simmonds-buckley@sheffield.ac.uk

JOB VACANCIES

FAMILY REUNION & PARENTING PROJECT LEAD
Greater Manchester

Just Psychology, a not-for-profit social enterprise in Greater Manchester, have an exciting opportunity for a qualified practitioner Psychologist/Psychotherapist/Mental Health Practitioner to lead on the development and delivery of an innovative project aimed at preventing family breakdown following serial migration and reunion.

Salary is £42,247 (FTE £52,809), the role is Part time 4 days per week. Job closes on Friday 25^th April.

For more information and to apply please click here.

CLINICAL LEAD - CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIES
Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust

LSCFT are seeking an innovative and experienced colleague to join the leadership team of NHS Lancashire & South Cumbria Talking Therapies. The service is a large provider of psychological therapies in the Lancashire and South Cumbria region.

This role is full time, Band 8c and the closing date has been extended to 30^th April. 

For more information and to apply please click here.

HIGHLY SPECIALIST CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST
Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust

Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist, Tameside and Glossop Secondary Care Psychological Therapies Service

For more information and to apply please click here.

Are you a member of one of our Communities of Practice?

By receiving this email you are a confirmed member of the PPN NW; however, have you considered joining one of our Communities of Practice (CoP)? Please see links below for information on how to join one of our CoPs:

PPN NW Mailing List Review

The Psychological Professions Network depends on the engagement of its members. To do this we need to ensure we have an accurate and up to date register and mailing list to enable us to keep you regularly updated with events, policy changes, projects and more.

Due to an error on our website registration form, a number of people who have created PPN NW accounts have automatically been opted out of communications and, therefore, are not receiving professional updates or event opportunities – effectively negating any benefit of being a member! We are therefore in the process of opting all of these members back into communications. Please do email us if you wish to remain opted out of communications.

What are we asking you to do?

Being a member of our PPN NW Mailing List allows us to invite you to bespoke Community of Practice events and workshops, receive our newsletter.

We will not share your information with any third parties or send you any promotional emails that are not connected to delivering psychological health and wellbeing within an NHS-commission space.

Please email the PPN NW at england.ppn.northwest@nhs.net if you wish to be removed from the PPN NW Mailing List.

You can update your own details, for both Membership and Communications Preferences, at any time by visiting the website here, this includes your profile with your most recent job title, professional role, banding and ICB etc.

Share Your News!

Please email the PPN-NW team at england.ppn.northwest@nhs.net if you have an update from your work or local network that you would like featured in one of our upcoming newsletters. We want to boost important events and developments from around our region, so let us know what’s going on where you are! 

Interested in joining the PPN?