Association for Psychological Therapies

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The Association for Psychological Therapies (APT) is a body providing recognition of excellence, training, resources, and accreditation to professionals working in Mental Health and related areas, mainly in the UK's National Health Service and Independent Health providers, but also in Canada and Australia.  

Contents

History

The Association for Psychological Therapies was founded in 1981 [1] by Dr William Davies and Dr Derek Perkins, two clinical Psychologists based in HM Prison Birmingham, England. Initially the focus was on their respective specialisms, namely violence-prevention and sex-offending, although it rapidly expanded to Aaron T. Beck’s newly developed cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) led initially by clinical psychologist Don Rowan.

During this stage courses were tutor-dependant, so a course on CBT led by one tutor might have a quite different emphasis from a CBT course led by another. With NHS teams increasingly commissioning multiple courses, especially CBT and Preventing Face-to-Face Violence, it became necessary to standardise course content so that commissioning organisations could rely on the same content being delivered across their teams, and that happening during the 1980s, with Paul Gilbert being largely responsible for developing the standardised CBT course.

APT's head office is now located in Thurnby, Leicestershire and was incorporated as a Private Limited Company under the name APT Training and Consultancy Ltd on 26 May 2006. [2]

APT now employ over 50 tutors on a consultancy basis, and have provided professional development to over 125,000 people working in the helping professions. [1]

In 2018 Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, was found to have infringed a trademark registered by APT for the name ‘RAID’. [3] Standing for Reinforce Appropriate, Implode Disruptive since 1990. The High Court judge, HH Melissa Clarke, found that the trademark had been infringed. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] The case, held in Birmingham, was the first ever to be heard by the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court outside of London. [10]

Notable Past Tutors

Apart from Paul Gilbert who would later go on to found Compassion-Focused Therapy and become professor of Psychology at the University of Derby, other tutors at that time included Clive Hollin who would author amongst others the Handbook of Offender Assessment and Treatment, and the Psychology of Interpersonal Violence and become Professor at the University of Leicester, Neil Frude who would author Understanding Abnormal Psychology, found the Books on Prescription scheme and become Professor at Cardiff University, and Hazel Nelson who would author Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Schizophrenia and Cognitive-behavioural Therapy with Delusions and Hallucinations A Practice Manual. APT Co-founder Derek Perkins had ceased active involvement by the end of 1983, but would continue to offer support and go on to become Head of Psychology at Broadmoor Secure Hospital and Professor of Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Resources developed

Tools that APT have developed include The RAID® System to help those working with disturbed and challenging behaviour, [11] [12] [13] with research showing a reduced number of incidents of challenging behaviour in medium secure LD wards. [14] Other tools and resources developed by APT include the DICES® Risk Assessment and Management System, used by mental health professionals to assess and manage the risks of suicide, non-suicidal self-injury, self-neglect and vulnerability, violence to others, and sexual assault, [15] and Davies's structured interview for assessing adolescents in crisis. [16]  

Accreditation

The APT has its own accreditation system and does not seek accreditation from any outside bodies, instead relying on transparent self-accreditation that is intended to help anyone to see what attendees on its courses have achieved. [17] This means that anyone is able to see the syllabus of any specific course and how it has been rated by attendees on two measure: Presentation quality, and Relevance. [18]

APT is an independent organisation and has never sought affiliation with other bodies such as BABCP or the BPS. APT courses have no academic entry requirements as such, although they are designed for and attended by mental health professionals (mainly mental health nurses, psychologists and psychiatrists) in the NHS and major independent healthcare providers.

Awards

APT was shortlisted for the Learning and Performance Institute, Learning Provider of The Year award in 2019 [19] gaining the bronze award, and APT's Academic Director (Dr William Davies) was shortlisted for the Investors in People, Leader of the Year award in 2020. [20]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Association for Psychological Therapies, "The Association for Psychological Therapies", ‘’Association for Psychological Therapies’’, Retrieved 28 February 2019
  2. ↑ Companies House, "A.P.T. TRAINING & CONSULTANCY LIMITED", ‘’Companies House’’, Retrieved 28 February 2019
  3. ↑ Nick Carding, "Trust in £100,000 court battle over alleged trademark breach", ‘’HSJ’’, 20 November 2018
  4. ↑ Mark Smulian, "NHS trust infringed trade mark owned by consultancy, court rules", ‘’Local Government Lawyer’’, 15 January 2019
  5. ↑ Nick Carding, "Trust in £100,000 court battle over alleged trademark breach", ‘’HSJ’’, 16 January 2019
  6. ↑ Mark Smulian, "NHS trust infringed trade mark owned by consultancy, court rules", ‘’Public Law Today’’, 15 January 2019
  7. ↑ Practical Law IP&IT, "Use of RAID mark by NHS foundation trust was in the course of trade (IPEC)", ‘’Thomson Reuters Practical Law’’, 16 January 2019
  8. ↑ Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, "Trust in £100,000 court battle over alleged trademark breach", ‘’HSJ’’, 9 January 2019
  9. ↑ Counsel Magazine, "APT Training & Consultancy Ltd and another v Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust", ‘’Counsel Magazine’’, Retrieved 28 February 2019
  10. ↑ Howes Percival, "Howes Percival successfully acts in NHS Trust trademark case", ‘’Northamptonshire Chamber’’, 21 January 2019
  11. ↑ Dr. Bronwen Davies, "Introducing Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) Within a Medium Secure Forensic Mental Health Service", ‘’NHS England, Page 10’’, Retrieved 28 February 2019
  12. ↑ St Andrew’s Healthcare, "Recovery Journeys", ‘’NHS, Page 13’’, Retrieved 28 February 2019
  13. ↑ Sarah Lee and Rachel West, "Cognitive Approaches to Intervention", ‘’Neupsy Key’’, Retrieved 28 February 2019
  14. ↑ Shelton 2019: 5
  15. ↑ Kevin Bond, "Quality Account", ‘’NHS, Page 7’’, Retrieved 28 February 2019
  16. ↑ National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, "Davies's Structured Interview for Assessing Adolescents in Crisis", ‘’National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’’, 4 July 2013
  17. ↑ Association for Psychological Therapies, "The Association for Psychological Therapies", ‘’Association for Psychological Therapies’’, Retrieved 23 February 2021
  18. ↑ Association for Psychological Therapies, "The Association for Psychological Therapies", ‘’Association for Psychological Therapies’’, Retrieved 23 February 2021
  19. ↑ Learning and Performance Institute, "The Learning Awards 2019 – Final Results", ‘’Learning and Performance Institute’’, Retrieved 28 February 2019
  20. ↑ Investors in People, "The Investors in People Awards 2020 Shortlist", ‘’Investors in People’’, Retrieved 12 October 2020

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