Bierley presents Substance Misuse Programme at Division of Clinical Psychology’s annual conference

Members of Cygnet Hospital Bierley’s Psychology team recently presented preliminary outcomes for its new substance misuse programme at this year’s Division of Clinical Psychology Conference in Cardiff. The Find Your Way programme is based on Acceptance and commitment Therapy (ACT) and was developed by colleagues at Cygnet Hospital Stevenage.

The programme outcomes are of interest as there is very little research on the use of substance misuse programmes for people with substance misuse difficulties who also have co-occurring mental health problems, and reside within secure services.

The programme consists of three parts as shown:

In 2016 service users from a female low-secure, male low-secure and specialist female personality disorder ward participated in the Find Your Way programme at Cygnet Hospital Bierley. Programme participants were interviewed in order to understand their experience of participating in the programme, and to gather an in-depth service user perspective on how the programme might be improved.

The interviews, analysed with Thematic Analysis, revealed very positive feedback. Service users described an increased awareness of their life values and the impact of substances on these values. Participants reflected on how they had previously used substances to cope with unwanted thoughts/feelings/experiences, and how they had learned alternative coping skills via the programme. The data also suggested the programme fostered personal development in different ways e.g. increased confidence.
Here are some service user quotes:

“[…] instead of thinking about things a lot or trying to push them away like I used to, I just ride the wave and wait till it goes you know and its right you know it’s helped me.”

“I didn’t really think about the impact taking drugs had on my family before.”

“…realising what it is that’s important to me in different areas like work, leisure, relationships things that I hadn’t really thought about before that had been important to me.”

“I do cooking and badminton now and eh, swimming sometimes, I have started swimming lessons now because I realised in the group I can’t swim and it’s something I wanted to learn.”

The poster was well received and generated much discussion among conference delegates surrounding the low dropout rates for the programme, and its innovative approach. The psychology team would like to thank colleagues at Cygnet Hospital Stevenage for sharing their programme and providing training. The Psychology team would also like thank therapy and nursing colleagues at Cygnet Hospital Bierley, who have contributed to and supported implementation of this new programme.

Share this article