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Original papers: Chris Mace, Sally Beeken, and Joan Embleton Beginning therapy: clinical outcomes in brief treatments by psychiatric trainees Psychiatr Bull 2006; 30: 7-10 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Provision of brief psychotherapy by psychiatric trainees under the new shift system.

Olubukola Kolawole, Salman Mustaq, Satyadev Nagari   (24 February 2006)

Provision of brief psychotherapy by psychiatric trainees under the new shift system. 24 February 2006
Olubukola Kolawole, SHO in Psychiatry , Salman Mustaq, Satyadev Nagari Send letter to journal: Re: Provision of brief psychotherapy by psychiatric trainees under the new shift system. folayem{at}yahoo.com Olubukola Kolawole, et al.	We read with interest the article “Clinical outcomes in brief treatments by psychiatric trainees” by Mace et al (Psychiatric Bulletin, January (2006)30,7-10.This study showed that significant improvements can be achieved by inexperienced psychiatric trainees providing brief psychotherapy under supervision. Over the last 18 months, we have each held full time psychotherapy posts at St.Michael’s Hospital providing brief six month psychotherapy to patients under supervision. We would like to highlight the fact that the shift system in St.Michael’s Hospital also started 18 months ago and since then we all had two and a half weeks of night duties on a 1 in 11-shift rota system during each six-month placement. These, in addition to twelve and a half days of annual leave represented significant interruptions in the continuity of psychotherapy. The concept of continuity of treatment by a psychotherapist is at the core of psychotherapy. As the new shift system threatens the continuity of treatment, it may be having a negative impact on outcomes of brief psychotherapy treatment by psychiatric trainees in the UK. We feel it is important that future studies of the outcomes of psychotherapy provided by SHOs are able to investigate this further. Olubukola Kolawole, Senior House Officer in Psychiatry, St Michael’s Hospital, Warwick CV34 5QW, e-mail: folayem@yahoo.com,Salman Mustaq, Senior House Officer in Psychiatry, St Micheals Hospital, Warwick, Satyadev Nagari, Senior House officer in Psychiatry, St Micheal’s Hospital, Warwick.