Practice strategies for implementation

Practice strategies for implementation is a free online course designed to support the implementation of children’s mental health interventions.

This course will help mental health practitioners to engage children in the implementation process in respectful and meaningful ways. It highlights how children’s existing skills, creativity and know-how can be used to ensure any mental health interventions are successful in both the short and long-term. It also acknowledges the need to work collaboratively with the child’s parents, who are often the driving force behind children’s attendance at therapeutic services.

The course considers four practice skills which support children’s participation:

1. Supporting parents to align actions and values.
2. Collaborative skill-building with children.
3. Noticing progress in setbacks.
4. Future-proofing new skills.

These strategies will help you to ensure children and families don’t feel like a failure if techniques seem ineffective in solving their problem. They will also help you to ensure any newly-acquired skills can be used by the child and family to address any ongoing and future problems they may face.

Practice strategies for implementation is the third in our series of online practice strategy training courses. The first in the series, Practice strategies for assessment and engagement, explores strengths-based approaches for engaging children in functional assessments. The second, Practice strategies for formulation, builds on these skills and looks at ways to engage children in the case formulation process. All three courses are designed for practitioners who work with children and families to implement mental health interventions, including psychiatrists, psychologists, paediatricians, mental health social workers, mental health nurses, mental health speech therapists and mental health occupational therapists.