Therefore to meet our client needs, in October 2013, six members of staff from Cygnet Hospital Stevenage, from various disciplines, embarked on the first of two parts of their Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) Intensive Training course to become DBT therapists.
Upon completion of the course the team returned to Cygnet Hospital Stevenage to begin the process of establishing a robust programme within the hospital. The journey has seen our team building a healthy consultation meeting (therapy for the therapists), set up the weekly DBT Skills Group (two and a half hours), and provide weekly individual therapy for female service users. Referrals are now being taken for male service users.
The team are now working towards becoming an accredited service and as such are required to meet the five functions of a comprehensive DBT programme, one of which is generalisation to the natural environment. Therefore staff are currently undertaking DBT awareness training to enable them to support generalisation of DBT skills within ward environments.
As part of Cygnet Hospital Stevenage’s commitment to delivering outcome focused healthcare, the DBT team have established a number of outcome measures, based on recognised assessment tools to quantify the progress service users, accessing the DBT programme. The baseline scores were completed prior to DBT commencing on the 1st April 2014 and re-administered at the end of August.
Preliminary results have shown an increased mindfulness, improved emotional regulation and improved anger regulation in the five month period which is very encouraging at this early stage of treatment.
The initial results were presented to NHS England earlier this month and were positively received. In December the whole team will be presenting our programme at the National DBT Conference.