Activities 4th July to 12th August

I’m posting a relatively long list of activities because I’m planning ahead, because quite a lot is planned, and because I’ve a lot to do, further posting might be difficult.

After a day catching up on both university and British Psychological Society business on 4^th July, I attended and presented at a conference on psychological therapies on 5^th July – an event enlivened by the presence of protestors, arguing that links between the Department of Work and Pensions / Job Centre Plus and the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme pave the way to permitting compulsion to enter therapy (something they, and I, repudiate) and run the risk of implying that unemployment is a kind of, or symptom of, some form of psychological disorder (again, a point of view I repudiate). As I said at the time, I think that meaningful and purposeful activity and high quality, well-paid, work are important for our wellbeing. I have long argued that employment advisors play a valuable role in psychological care and should be part of multi-disciplinary teams. However I believe that a return to work should be a goal of therapy only if the client wants it to be a goal. Compulsion should never be part of therapy. I’d go much further. I believe that ‘conditionality’ – making, for instance, the receipt of benefits conditional upon other factors, for instance attending therapy – is misguided. In any event… I share the values of the protestors, even if I accepted an invitation to speak at an event they picketed.

On the 6^th July, I met colleagues from MentalHealth Europe – Sante Mentale Europe to discuss how we might work together on joint projects, and then attended the launch of “A Healthier Life for All: The Case for Cross-Government Action”; an essay series (for which I’m an author) on health and social care [http://www.health.org.uk/news/cross-government-action-needed-improve-health-uk-according-all-party-parliamentary-health-group] prepared for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Health and the Health Foundation. As well as attending an awards ceremony at the RoyalStatistical Society, I also posted a comment about the Chilcot Enquiry for the British Psychological Society’s Presidential blog.

On Thursday 7^th July, I followed up previous actions with further discussions with colleagues about both Mental Health Europe and possible briefing papers on complex strategic decision-making.

On Friday 8^th July (at the time of writing), I will be involved in a teleconference about the future shape of clinical psychology training, before visiting the Department for Work and Pensions for discussions on a wide range of issues.

On Monday 11^th July, I shall hold a regular teleconference with colleagues before continuing to help edit a forthcoming BPS report on depression.

Tuesday 12^th July will see me continuing in the same vein – further editorial work and a meeting with clinical psychology colleagues.

My Vice-Chancellor will be delighted to know that I will be spending Wednesday 13^th, Thursday 14^th and Friday 15^th on university business (with some NHS work).

I am involved in personal issues on Monday 18^th, Tuesday 19^th and Wednesday 20^th July, and then I travel first to Google Headquarters in San Francisco for their SciFoo conference, before travelling on to the International Congress of Psychology in Yokohama, Japan (I will, bizarrely, add a day to my life, I think… by flying eastwards to America and then Japan and the further east to come home, I think I’ll be ahead of the sun… which will be interesting, although somewhat stressful, as my subscription-paying colleagues will be delighted to know I’ll be spending around 48 hours flying in economy class).

Bad for my health, after a short break, I’ll be flying back to the USA for the American Psychological Association’s Annual Congress, returning on 10^th August.

Finally (for this post), I shall be meeting colleagues from the Irish Psychology Association … thankfully, in London (which means merely a 5am alarm call and a train journey rather than a transatlantic flight).

Forthcoming activities (20th June – 1st July)

(After getting up at 4:30 on the morning of Monday 20^th …) I’ll be taking part in a regular British Psychological Society teleconference before spending the day editing a forthcoming BPS report on depression. 

Tuesday 21^st sees me participating in the launch of the PsychologicalWellbeing Collaborative Learning Network, at the BPS London office.

On Wednesday, 22^nd, I’ll be back at the BPS London offices for a seminar on the interface between psychology and the law, specifically looking at the role of psychiatric diagnosis when people have committed offences (something very timely). In the evening, I’ll be representing the British Psychological Society at the Royal Statistical Society’s William Beveridge Memorial Lecture, ‘Mapping progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals’.

On Thursday 23^rd, I’ll be working at the University (some university business, and some NHS work), and on Friday I’ll be travelling to Leeds for a meeting of the Group of Trainers in Clinical Psychology.

On Monday 27^th June, I’ll be at the university, working on our project exploring wellbeing in the community. 

Tuesday 28^th will find me doing some NHS clinical work before going to Manchester to work on a joint project between the BPS and Health Education England (with other colleagues) supporting the necessary skills to make formulation a core part of mental health care.

On Wednesday 29^th, I’ll be meeting the Minister for Care Services, Alistair Burt, MP, before attending the Royal College of Psychiatrists Annual Dinner. 

On Thursday 30^th July, I’ll be doing (yet more) work on the BPS report on depression, before, on Friday 1^st July, spending time back at the University working on our NIHR dementia project.

This week’s activities (1st June – 8th June, 2016)

Today (Wednesday), I’ll be travelling down to the Royal College of General Practitioners to sign, on behalf of the British Psychological Society, the STOMP pledge. This commits professionals working for people with a learning disability and their loved ones, to take real and measurable steps to stop the excessive use of psychotropic medication. The pledge is supported by various medical Royal Colleges, and will today be signed by – among others – Alistair Burt, Minister for Care Services.

I’ll be returning to Liverpool for regular university business in the afternoon, but also I shall be attending the annual DuncanMemorial lecture, celebrating our city’s tradition of public health and public service.

On Thursday 2^nd June, I’ll again be in London, first to visit the BBC to discuss psychological health and wellbeing in the workplace, and then to go on to the Annual General Meeting of the Wessex Branch of the BPS, where I’ll be speaking on how the British Psychological Society should promote our science, our profession and our values.

Then, on Friday, I’ll be teaching (in Kent) before discussions with colleagues about forthcoming BPS reports on depression (among other things), a teleconference about the plans of the BPS History andPhilosophy of Psychology Section, and a Board meeting of the Trustees of the Joanna Simpson Foundation (thankfully via teleconference).

Hopefully catching up on some sleep over the weekend, I’ll have our regular BPS teleconference first thing on Monday morning. The rest of that Monday (6^th) will be taken up with some university work, some NHS work (with clients) as well as a presentation to Annual Conference of the Liverpool Assistant Psychologists’Group. It’s a remarkable sign of the strength of our profession – just in the city of Liverpool, a conference specifically planned for assistant psychologists can attract 100 attendees.

On Tuesday 7^th June, I will be representing the BPS at a roundtable stakeholder meeting at the BMA (British Medical Association) to continue our work to address the issue of prescribed drugs dependence, before travelling to Oxford to mark the publication of the British Psychological Society’s new Guidelines on Sexual Abuse in Childhood.

Finally (for this week), I’ll be back in London on 8^th June for another BPS launch, this time for our report on the contribution made by psychologists to perinatal (mother and baby) mental health care. Work continues on the 9^th and 10^th June… but more on that later.

This week’s activities (9th June – 15th June, 2016)

Wednesday the 9^th sees me at the launch of the British Psychological Society briefing document on perinatal mental health, followed by some editorial work on our forthcoming report on depression.

I’ll be continuing that work on Thursday before going to Birmingham for the 50^th birthday celebration of Aston University. On Friday, I’ll be chairing the BPS Board of Trustees meeting back in Leicester.

On Monday of next week (the 13^th), I’ll be doing more work on our Depression report, but on Tuesday (14^th) I’ll be attending a meeting organised by the All Party Parliamentary Health Group and the King’s Fund on integrating physical and mental health care before visiting a field site for some research I’m involved in.

Finally, on Wednesday 15^th, I’ll be lecturing on serious mental health issues to colleagues from Merseyside Police before travelling to Brighton to attend the BPS Division of Forensic Psychology AnnualConference.

This week’s activities (23rd May - 1st June, 2016)

Apart from a couple of teleconferences on Monday (which I hope my family will understand), I will be spending Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with my family on holiday in Spain. 
On Thursday, I shall be traveling to the Spanish ANPIR conference in Bilbao for a presentation on Friday. 
It's a public holiday on Monday 30th, and I'll be engaged on university business on Tuesday and Wednesday (31st and 1st June). Otherwise... I'm sure there will be plenty of emails!

This week’s activities (16th May - 20th May, 2016)

On Monday, I’ll be visiting the British Psychological Society office in Leicester to meet the staff and discuss my plans for my year as President.

On Tuesday, I have some NHS work scheduled, before I go down to London for an evening event discussing the portrayal of mental health on TV – I’m an audience member, rather than a panellist (unfortunately), but this is a timely debate given what many people regard as the relative disregard of social context at least some programming.

On Wednesday, after returning from London, I have a little more NHS business to attend to (as well as posting my regular BPS blog) and on Thursday I'll be meeting a colleague to receive advice on public relations and promotion (he’s a former advertising executive who now advises clinical psychology training programmes, and I think he'll have useful insights).

I am, as I write this, not 100% sure what I’m doing on Friday (20^th), but I hope to attend the BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) Research Conference in Brighton.

This week’s activities (11th April – 15th April, 2016)

Another good week for my Vice-Chancellor.

I’m holding a regular teleconference about British Psychological Society business first thing on Monday morning, and then having a meeting at 5pm that day about the History and Philosophy Section of the BPS (although I don’t quite know what the agenda is, yet). I’ll also be holding a skype interview with someone from ShrinkRapRadio (which I hope is a trustworthy organisation) on Tuesday evening.

The rest of the week will be spent on University business; which is only fair, since they pay my salary, and a little clinical work for the NHS.

This week’s activities (4th April – 8th April, 2016)

My Vice-Chancellor will be pleased (I hope!) – I’m spending most of the week on University business.

On Thursday 3rd, I’ll be at a local British Psychological Society event in Derby, with NHS colleagues discussing ways of designing services and delivering therapies without relying on diagnosis.

For the rest of the week, I’ll be mainly focussing on University business… mainly. I’ll be taking a couple of BPS teleconferences on Monday. I’ll also be doing some NHS clinical work. For the University though, among other things, I’ll be working on our project looking at Human Rights in dementia and our project looking at community wellbeing.

This week’s activities (18th April – 22nd April, 2016)

As usual for a Monday, I’m holding a regular teleconference about British Psychological Society business first thing (when I’ll catch up on Jamie’s rather distressing news), as well as a couple of other telephone and Skype calls; about BPS publications and public reports, and about a new All PartyParliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence, but spending the rest of the day on a combination of university and NHS business.

Tuesday is solely a university day, but on Wednesday 20^th, I am travelling to Teesside University for a celebration of the 20 year anniversary of their Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) programme

On Thursday, I’ll be busy with university business, but in London; visiting the new economics foundation (they write their name in lowercase, I don’t know why) to discuss our joint interest in community wellbeing.

Then, on Friday, I’ll be meeting with the new BPS Policy and Communications Director to discuss our plans for BPS policy. For me, implementing the BPS ‘charitable object’ - “to promote the advancement and diffusion of a knowledge of psychology pure and applied” – that means a focus on social justice, wellbeing, health, mental health, education and criminal justice… for starters. Then, I’ll be having lunch with colleagues from psychotherapy organisations – BACP, UKCP, and BPC, before a meeting with colleagues from the Joanna Simpson Foundation.