Talking Therapies Clinical Skills: Older Adult Best Practice Guide

Talking Therapies Clinical Skills: Older Adult Best Practice Guide
Online Course
Thu 21 Mar 2024

Colleagues from across the country gathered together at this online course to become advocates for best practice in NHS Talking Therapies services. With focus on how you can adjust interventions for older adults in response to the pandemic, attendees gained new skills for working with LTCs and looked at how to improve therapeutic outcomes for those with cognitive deficits. Those who joined us logged off equipped with practical strategies to improve client experience and service access to better serve the community of older people.

An interactive, online training course, previously held in March 2024

By joining this educational forum, the attendees were able to bridge communication gaps, enhance understanding of physical comorbidities and develop confidence in delivering effective interventions. The following key learning outcomes were looked at and discussed on the day:

  • Adapting approaches to deliver effective interventions for those with physical comorbidities
  • Adjusting therapeutic approaches for clients affected by the pandemic
  • Developing new therapeutic approaches for people with cognitive deficits
  • Tackling common stereotypes to improve therapeutic outcomes
  • Navigating community services and domiciliary care to improve access to NHS Talking Therapies services
  • Gaining a deeper understanding of the needs of older adults and improve NHS Talking Therapies - client relation

Developed with convenience in mind

Attendees were able to take away useful techniques and new skills to use in their day-to-day work routine. The day included:

  • Evidenced based examples and referrals
  • Interactive presentations
  • Closed room discussions
  • Agreed action plan
Introductions and the leaders opening remarks
Heather Stonebank, Clinical Programmes Manager, North East and Yorkshire Mental Health Team, NHS England
Overview of older adults Mental Health and NHS Talking Therapies
  • Where are we now and what does the data say
  • What are the recommendations from the NHS Talking Therapies positive practice guidance
  • What are we working towards
Interactive discussion: Improving access in your service
  • Has your service implemented any suggestions from the positive practice guidance?
  • What’s worked to support increased access for older adults in your service?
Life beyond the long term plan, what have we learnt, next steps, changes and how do we keep older adults on the agenda
  • What has been the learning and how can you take this forward
  • Next steps and changes
  • How can you keep older adults on the agenda
Interactive discussion: Your thoughts
  • How do you see the future of NHS TT?
  • What plans have you or can you put in place to keep older adults on the agenda?
Delivering effective remote and online therapeutic interventions to older adults and digital inclusivity
  • Overcoming assumptions of barriers of adaption to multimedia or video conference of NHS Talking Therapies delivery
  • Considering the barriers to remote therapy and how we can overcome them
  • What can we do to support online access and improve digital inclusivity
Group discussion: Sharing best practice
Morning question and answer session
Adapting psychological therapies for older adults and carers
  • Adjusting intervention styles and strategy to accommodate clients with mild cognitive challenges
  • People living with Dementia and the support available
  • Working with physical long term conditions and understanding their psychological impact
  • Collaborating with caregivers to support recovery
Group discussion: Sharing best practice
A whole system approach – working with other health care professionals to support older adults
  • Working together with health care professionals to support older adults mental health
  • Recognising and challenging negative attitudes and stereotypes to aging
  • Action plan for approaching this area – a best practice example
Group discussion: Sharing best practice
Reflections of the day: Three things to take away from today
Afternoon question and answer session
Chair’s closing remarks

Heather Stonebank

Quality Improvement Manager
Yorkshire and the Humber Clinical Networks, NHS England

Insightful presentations and learning opportunities for NHS Talking Therapy Professionals

Previously held in 2021, this online course was attended by professionals from across the Talking Therapies professional community with job titles including; CBT Therapists, Clinical Leads, Service Managers and PWPs. Attendees really enjoyed the day and gave glowing feedback that included: 

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"Fantastic - really well organised and extremely interactive and insightful. Thank you."
- iTalk
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"Informative workshop. I liked the group size; it was more interactive and good to hear what other services are doing."
- Healthy Minds Oldham
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"Very helpful and insightful."
- Southampton Steps to Wellbeing

We can run this course in-house specifically for your team

SBK Healthcare are pleased to offer our experience and insight into educational forums as a service to you and your organisation. If you would like this course delivered directly to your team or have a different learning need, or would simply like to bring your team together to benefit from dedicated training time, then we can help. Take the first step today and email sarah.kemm@sbk-healthcare.co.uk or telephone 01732 897788.



Why sponsor a Talking Therapies National Networking Forum

Our role at SBK Healthcare is to bring industry together with healthcare professionals so that you can educate and inform your audience. These trail-blazing talking therapy forums offering dedicated presentation, Q&A, networking and discussion time, each sponsor will be full immersed into the event and able to effectively engage with your NHS audience.

Interested in your own event, managed by us?

SBK Healthcare also provides in-house forums. Working closely with you as the client we can research, produce, market and deliver the conference or online forum that best suits the audience and meets your goals.

Reach out today

If you would like more information on our sponsorship options an in-house forum or if you wish to discuss your needs and what solutions may be appropriate for your business, please contact:

Sarah Kemm

Contact: 01732 897788

Email: sarah.kemm@sbk-healthcare.co.uk