15 July 2020

Colleagues share how they’ve used the King’s Health Partners staff development fund, and what you need to do to apply.

If you work for one of our partner organisations: King’s College London or Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital or South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts, then you could be eligible to apply for our King’s Health Partners staff development fund - up to £400 in funding to attend courses, events or conferences to learn more about mind and body care.  

You can apply for the King’s Health Partners staff development fund if you currently don’t have similar funding available to you in your career pathway. To be able to use our fund, we ask that you use it in the field of ‘Mind and Body’ so that it helps you learn about or train in joining up mental and physical healthcare.

We hear from our colleagues on how they’ve used our staff development fund to further their education and career, learning about overcoming the historic divides between mental and physical healthcare:

Kyla Vaillancourt, clinical psychologist, perinatal mental health team, South London and Maudlsey NHS Foundation Trust

Kyla Vaillancourt, who works at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, used the King’s Health Partners staff development fund to attend and present at The Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health conference 2018.

Attending the conference gave her the confidence to publish her own research and share learnings with perinatal psychology colleagues at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. This sparked discussion about how her research on maternal experiences of childhood trauma could be applied to clinical work.

Kyla says:

I gained a great deal from this conference which I hope will have a direct impact on my clinical and professional work. I would like to thank King’s Health Partners staff development fund for supporting my attendance to this conference.

Surabhi Chaturvedi, psychotherapist, Department of Haemato-Oncology, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 

Surabhi Chaturvedi, a psychotherapist from King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, used the funding to attend the Cancer and Living Meaningfully (CALM) summer school. The CALM model involves conducting therapeutic work with patients who have advanced cancers, and aims to equip clinicians with a framework that helps to address concerns that tend to be important to patients who have a poor prognosis or a sense of a shortened life. 

Following the training, Surabhi organised a seminar to share her learnings from the course with the other psychotherapists and psychologists in her department. She’s also been using the model regularly in therapy practice and attends monthly peer supervision meetings focused on the model with other practitioners who attended the course. 

Jennie Crossan, clinical lead for obesity service development project, registered dietitian, Evelina London

Jennie Crossan, when she was an early years community dietitian at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, attended a one day event looking at the health and wellbeing of those under five years old. The event was tailored around children’s oral health, managing fussy eating, changing habits, and getting more active. Jennie says:

One of the resources discussed was The Child Feeding Guide, which I’ll share with my colleagues and provide to parents at the end of their course with us. I liked the opportunity to network with people who work within my own organisation, alongside others who work in different trusts.

Interested in applying for up to £400 in funding to attend an event, conference or course on a mind and body theme? Find out how you can apply for the King’s Health Partners Staff development fund.