First steps towards a solution-focused older people’s mental health service

Abstract

This article describes an ongoing piece of solution-focused (SF) development work located within an NHS mental health service for older people. This initiative was prompted by an invitation to a colleague and myself to provide SF training to all staff in the Trust. In a departure from previous training and development approaches within the Trust, the local manager wished that all of the staff within the clinical teams in the service should receive training in order that all would share an awareness of, and ability to use, the SF model in their work with older people. An opportunistic evaluation was undertaken of the impact of the training intervention – an SF training workshop – and service development, both in terms of immediate changes at the individual level, and longer term changes at the team and organisational level. This article is a summary of a dissertation I submitted as part of the MA in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy at the University of Birmingham.