News Highlights - the latest developments in UK play therapy
This page is your
opportunity to announce events, jobs, express views etc. Just send them to
jefferyht@yahoo.co.uk - we
reserve the right to publish or not!
Play Therapy Demand Model for Northern Ireland
PTUK's research department completed a demand
model for Northern Ireland in April 2008 using the
same parameter as the ones for England, Wales and
Scotland.
The estimated demand for NI is just over 50,000
children in need of play and creative arts
therapies, requiring 603 practitioners. At
one end of the scale Belfast needs 92 therapists
whilst Moyle needs only 5 and a half.
Estimates for each of 890 small areas are
available to PTUK members upon application to Jeff
Thomas:
jefferyht@yahoo.co.uk This data
have been used very successfully by other members
in their presentations for funding and job
applications.
The conference held in Dublin was well
attended with 299 delegate days.
The key note address by Margot Sunderland
was outstanding in content and presentation. It was given a
rapturous reception by the delegates. Margot provided a concise
review of neuroscience research relating to child development and the
importance of play as a way of developing and rectifying problems that
occur in the healthy growth of the brain. (Full report in the Summer
2007 issue of the 'Play for Life' journal)
The conference was opened by Monika
Jephcott, Chief Executive of PTUK. She presented the latest PTUK
research results, based on over 700 cases where pre and post therapy
measures have been obtained, as summarised below. These confirm
the main previous finding that 70% of children receiving play therapy
from therapists trained to PTI and PTUK standards of competencies will
show a positive change.
An overwhelming case for
the use of play therapy is made by combining the neuroscience and PTUK's
practice based evidence research.
Go to top
Our fourth research report is based upon the
total dataset (as at April 2007) held in
SEPACTO,
the UK's database of play therapy clinical outcomes, developed and
managed by PTUK. It includes cases covered in previous
reports.
The data has been supplied
by 167 PTUK and PTI members.
Gender
The clients are two thirds boys, one third girls. This proportion has
been remarkably consistent during the six years we have been recording data.
Girls 32% Boys 68%
Age
The figures show that:
* The majority of clients being of primary school age.
* However some play therapists work with young people
Type of Intervention
This is a the second time we have carried out this analysis.
The results are similar to the last
time. The majority of the sessions are 1:1 with 48% being short
term (1 to 12 sessions) and 36% being long term (over 12 sessions). Only
16% of the recorded cases used group work. It is rather surprising that
group interventions are not used more frequently in the climate of cost
effectiveness and throughput targets.
Changes in Total Difficulties
|
N |
% |
|
Improved |
524 |
68.59% |
|
No change |
61 |
7.98% |
|
Worse |
179 |
23.43% |
|
764 |
100.00% |
The 68.59% of cases showing a positive change is lower, by about 2%,
than predicted from previous data. It was hypothesised that a large
batch of data received from students contained cases who were initially
assessed as ‘normal’ and where it would be difficult to effect a
positive change – indeed providing therapy might stimulate dormant
issues from the unconscious. An analysis of changes was undertaken using
initial assessment scores of 10, 20 and 30. This shows that the
percentage of cases showing a positive change increases with the
severity of total difficulties problems.
As shown in the table below, by excluding the children who were in
the 'normal' classification, 73% of the children showed a positive
change.
Change in Total Difficulties –Clients With a Pre Therapy Score of 10+
|
N |
% |
|
Improved |
453 |
72.95% |
|
No change |
40 |
6.44% |
|
Worse |
128 |
20.61% |
|
621 |
|
Changes in Pro-Social Scores
|
N |
% |
|
Improved |
385 |
54.77% |
|
No change |
162 |
23.04% |
|
Worse |
156 |
22.19% |
|
703 |
100.00% |
As with total difficulties it was decided to test the hypothesis that
cases with the more severe pro-social problems would show a higher
percentage cases exhibiting positive change.
Changes in Pro-social – Clients Pre Therapy Score <5
|
N |
% |
|
Improved |
226 |
77.13% |
|
No change |
39 |
13.31% |
|
Worse |
28 |
9.56% |
|
293 |
100.00% |
The data again shows that the percentage of cases showing a positive
change increases with the severity of the pro-social issues
Go to top
The 2007 Conference saw the launch
of the APAC Filial Play Coach/Mentor Certificate course conforming to
PTUK's recently set competency standards. It was an experimental
3-day course designed for experienced Play Therapists. It was
rated highly by the participants who felt that an extra day would have
been beneficial. Accordingly the next version of this course will
be four days and some minor adjustments in content will be made.
See more details. Timing and venue have yet to be
finalised. Members interested in
extending their play therapy practice and skills should email
mokijep@aol.com The emphasis
is on the development of coaching and mentoring skills to enable parents
to use non-directive play.
APAC are also currently delivering the
first 6-day Filial Play Coach/Mentor course for an Education Authority.
This is designed for those with little or no play therapy skills but
have experience of working with parents and families. This
includes: Social Workers, Health Visitors and Family Liaison Officers.
The course teaches both non-directive play skills and coaching and
mentoring techniques in an in-house environment. Organisations who
have at least 16 staff who would benefit from this type of training
should contact APAC on 01825 712312 or
email
mokijep@aol.com
Go to top
PTUK is developing a full set of guidelines
for primary school Head Teachers who wish to address their pupils
emotional and behaviour difficulties. Any PTUK Member or Head
Teacher interested in participating should contact
ptukorg@aol.com
With 104 pages published in 2006
'Play for Life' beat its own target of 100 pages for the year. This is well ahead of the minimum commitment to provide 64
pages per year for members. Worldwide, it has the highest content of
material for the play therapy practitioner of any journal.
Go to top
In her opening address at the 2007 PTUK
conference reiterated that PTUK wholeheartedly supports the government
in its wish to regulate play therapy as a profession. She then declared
that the "progress is DISGRACEFUL.
The government wanted the psychology professions regulated by
title by 2008. There’s no chance that this will happen. Our latest
forecast is 2010 at earliest.
Even worse the government is paying lip
service to consultation by only taking into account what it wants to
hear rather than the measures that are really
necessary to protect the public. So the
process is DISGRACEFUL
as well.
PTUK's position is still that we welcome regulation provided
that:
The registration body sets adequate standards that are based on
competencies that have been shown to be effective.
It is recognised that play therapy may be safely delivered by
other professionals in a multi role position. To implement this it may
be necessary to have more than one title.
The government shows no sign of listening or understanding these.
I said last year that the Health Professions Council - the HPC - as
currently set up is not currently fit to regulate play therapy. If the
competency standards set by the HPC for the currently registered Arts
Therapists are a precedent they are far too low. Our current standards
are way ahead.
PTUK has been engaged in discussions with the DoH and the HPC led by
BPS, BACP and UKCP representing the counselling and psychotherapy
professions.
Some professional titles, such as Arts
Therapists, already registered with the HPC require a Masters degree
qualification but others do not. It is far from clear what the
requirements will eventually be. Any statements made that
suggest that HPC standards have already been set for Play Therapists are
not true and are misleading.
The training programme offered by APAC to PTUK
standards covers all likely eventualities. We encourage all students to
complete the Post Graduate Certificate in Therapeutic Play Skills and
the Post Graduate Diploma in Play Therapy courses, including a total of
200 hours clinical work, to become a PTUK Certified Play Therapist and
then to reach a total of 450 hours to become a PTUK Accredited Play
Therapist. We also require evidence of clinical governance.
We suggest that students may wish to complete
the MA in Practice Based Play Therapy, by dissertation, if they
have a particular interest in play therapy research, to advance their
career prospects or for personal satisfaction. At present it is
not necessary to have an Masters level degree to become a Play
Therapist. To suggest otherwise would be dishonest. There is
no evidence, at the moment, to show that play therapy practitioners with
an MA produce better clinical outcomes than those who do not have
one. It may or may not be a future HPC requirement.
If however, you wish to 'cover all bases' by
all means continue onto APAC's MA part of the programme.
HPC's policy is to set 'entry level' standards
to safeguard the public. Professional organisations such as PTUK
may then set their own higher standards. We believe that our
current standards originally set in 2000 are at a higher level when
compared to professional titles already registered by the HPC.
There has been progress in joint discussions
with BAPT who agreed to our suggestion, made on the 7th
August 2006, that a preliminary meeting to discuss a possible joint
application for regulation should be held. A meeting was held on 23rd
June with positive results towards working together on regulation of the
profession. A number of issues and differences in approach were
identified which need to be discussed further.
Go to top
APAC plans to open two new centres in Autumn 2007 - Edinburgh and
Manchester. This follows the successful start of PTUK accredited play
therapy training programmes in the Bristol, Cambridgeshire and Leeds
(Barnsley) areas in 2006 to cope with the increased demand
due to the popularity of the programme in producing safe and effective play
therapy practitioners.
Go to top
