'Those with most serious problems would be left without the best help'

PSYCHIATRIST Dr David Smith has more than 30 years of experience and believes the NHS Commissioners proposals to decommission Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Services in Derbyshire could leave patients without the most effective form of therapy. He said psychodynamic psychotherapy was of "major benefit" to patients.

Read the whole article from the Derby Evening Telegraph here.

Dr Smith has written a response to the plans to decommission Derbyshires highly specialist, front line NHS Mental Health Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Services. You can read "The Case for Long-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A response to the Derbyshire County Primary Care Trust" here

ANALYSIS AND CRITIQUE OF THE CONSULTATION DOCUMENT  ‘Psychological Therapies Specification’ Draft Version 0.9

 Read the whole document here

This paper offers an analysis and critique of proposals contained in the Consultation Document 'Psychological Therapies Specification Version 0.9 (Draft)' produced by Derbyshire PCT Commissioners in July 2011.

It is presented by UNITE on behalf of Clinicians who work as Specialist Psychodynamic Psychotherapists within the Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

We address concerns about the processes by which these proposals were arrived at and presented for consultation, and their content.

We address our concerns to all stakeholders: the Commissioners, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, G.P.s, service users and their representatives, and the Overview and Scrutiny Commissions for Derby City and County Councils who have authority for holding Commissioners accountable for their decisions.

We describe who we are, provide an initial executive summary of our response and then speak in more depth to these issues.

The Specialist Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Service.

For over thirty years, we have provided a tertiary service within Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust treating adults with severe and complex psychological disorders. These are vulnerable adults, often presenting with lifelong histories of mental ill-health and multiple use of local services. Staff have a core professional training in mental health, and a post-qualification specialist training in psychodynamic psychotherapy of four or more years. Some staff have Doctorate or PhD qualifications in addition to their clinical qualifications.

Treatment within the service takes the form of individual, group or couple therapy, with an average attendance time of 18 months to 2 years. The service aims not just to ameliorate symptoms, but to produce lasting change and a number of outcome measures are used to demonstrate this. The Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Service is provided from the Department base in Derby City, and from locality Recovery Team bases in the South of the County.