Biography

Barbara is the Co-ordinator of Service User and Carer Involvement. She has been in post since 2006 and her role is to integrate the views, contributions and experiences of mental health service users and their carers into the training of clinical psychologists on the programme.

This has been a new venture for the Department with a number of successes to date. Service users and carers are now fully integrated into the process of selecting trainees to come onto the course . Service users and carers are included in teaching sessions, suggesting ideas for essay titles, on the final judging panels for trainees’ final year case studies, advising trainees on their research projects, etc.

There is a Service User & Carer Advisory Group which meets monthly to discuss how to increase the involvement of service users and carers across the whole of the training programme and new members are always welcome (contact Barbara for details).

Barbara’s background is in public relations where she worked for over 20 years before taking a break to go to university, where she graduated with a first in Cultural Studies, followed by a master’s degree in the same subject. She has worked extensively in the voluntary sector and with service user and carer groups.