Philip John Archard

• PhD
• Senior Lecturer at Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust

Since 2010, the United Kingdom has witnessed a number of initiatives that shift away from reliance on performance management to improve social work with children and families, towards a renewed interest in practice models. This study reports on the evaluation of a local government programme in England to introduce and embed systemic family practice...

Practice theories to support child protection social work in the United Kingdom, as in the United States and Australia, are being squeezed out by a focus on performance targets and procedural timescales. This study examines an innovative programme designed to reverse this trend initiated by an English local government authority. The programme aimed...

Purpose This paper aims to focus on concerns unique to international medical graduates (IMGs) and doctors from global majority groups pursuing a career in psychiatry in the UK. It specifically addresses challenges affecting the differential attainment of IMGs in passing the Clinical Assessment of Skills and Competencies (CASC) examination – the fin...

There are high levels of mental health needs among young people involved with youth justice services. However, these young people can struggle to make use of mental health services without additional measures being put in place to support access, necessitating local innovation. This article provides an overview of a mental health project serving yo...

Social work has a vital role to play in supporting Autistic people of all ages. Whether in facilitating access to other services, such as housing, enhancing quality of life, or in a safeguarding capacity, social workers have a legal and moral responsibility to ensure their practice ensures full, equitable involvement of Autistic people. Regrettably...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report findings from a service evaluation of a training initiative in participatory practice with children and young people (CYP) for early help (EH) professionals. The training was based on the Lundy model of child participation. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire-based survey was undertaken of sta...

Children and young people in foster and adoptive families are considered more vulnerable to a high level of mental health need when compared to peers who are not care-experienced or adopted. Acceptance of this view amongst clinical providers and policy makers has necessitated the development of specialist provision and dedicated care pathways withi...

Purpose The process of ending mental health support is often not well-attended to in practice or research, and clinicians in UK mental health services lack focused clinical guidance in this area. This paper aims to report on a service evaluation that sought to understand from clinicians working in a single adult community mental health team (CMHT)...

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the role of bullying victimization in predicting psychopathology, encompassing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), risk of developing prodromal psychosis and emotional and behavioural problems, among in-school Nigerian adolescents. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 351 junior secondary students (n = 173...

This article builds on methodological literature addressing ways in which qualitative research interviewing can utilise principles derived from psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, focussing on the sharing of interpretations and formulations with research participants. We review the accounts of different researchers who have considered...

The mental health vulnerability of children and young people in foster and adoptive families is well recognised, which has led to the development of dedicated posts and care pathways in mental health care provision. This article reports on learning resulting from local quality improvement work in a single child and adolescent mental health service...

Purpose - This paper contributes to a dialogue about the psychoanalytic concept of free association and its application in the context of qualitative research interviewing. In doing so, it also adds to wider discussion regarding the relationship between clinical psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and qualitative research. Design/methodol...

There is arguably great benefit for mental health professionals to engage in the production of research evidence. One mechanism to accomplish new knowledge and learning is for professionals to engage in ‘practice-near’ research. This term denotes research methodologies that share the objectives of: (1) getting close to professional practice in the...

Clinical High Risk for Psychosis has evolved in recent years as a conceptual and clinical entity, representing a shift in focus from the syndromal psychosis state to a recognition of the pre-psychotic state as a period of potential preventive intervention. Much existing evidence has been generated from well-resourced countries, with a more limited...

Purpose This paper aims to report a non-randomized control study undertaken to investigate prevalence and correlates of conduct disorder among male secondary education students in South-West Nigeria and to assess the impact of a problem-solving skills and attributional retraining (PSSAR) intervention with this population. Design/methodology/approa...

Background Digital technology affords opportunities to expand mental healthcare beyond the clinic setting, supporting sustainable delivery. A pilot qualitative study was undertaken with a view to using the experience gained from it to develop a substantive project in this area. Aim To identify and better understand the perceived barriers and benefi...

Background: Free association is a core concept of the free association narrative interview method, an approach that is well-known among researchers in the UK who are interested in using psychoanalytic ideas in qualitative psycho-social research. Aim: To examine the relationship between the framing of the psychoanalytic concept of free associatio...

In a recent contribution to this journal, Cummings (2023) reports findings from a preliminary qualitative study of practitioner viewpoints regarding digitally delivered mental health support to care-experienced young people. Cummings’ study highlights the need to engage with professional experiences of using digital methods with this group, both du...

This article reports on a service evaluation of a group-based psychoeducation programme for older people in an inpatient mental healthcare setting. It sought to explore how the programme was experienced by patients and staff, as well as its acceptability and the feasibility for implementation in the longer term. Via questionnaires, views were gathe...

Freedom of information (FoI) legislation has been represented as a valuable but underused means of generating otherwise unavailable data from public authorities in health and social care research. This article complements extant literature on the use of FoI requests for research intended to inform health and social care policy and improve the quali...

This article stages a discussion on the role of social psychiatry in present-day child and adolescent mental health care. Taking a broad perspective, it considers the growing demand for mental health services for children and young people and how social psychiatry can be situated in the current framework of psychiatry as a medical specialty as well...

Professional self-disclosure can be defined as the professional helper revealing by verbal means something personal about themselves to the person or persons they are seeking to help. This article provides reflections on child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) clinicians’ navigation of professional self-disclosure during the COVID-19 pan...

Background: Homeless people are at increased risk for developing mental health conditions and mental ill-health can be precipitating factor to episodes of homelessness. The unique profile and risk factors associated with this group means they are best served by dedicated care pathways and partnership working between agencies. Unfortunately, gaps in...

Background This article focuses on approaches to qualitative research interviewing that draw direct inspiration from psychoanalytic therapy. The reflective discussion piece provides a critical spotlight on this method to promote reflection and ethical application. Aim To provide clarity regarding the meaning of psychoanalytically informed, psycho-...

Purpose: This paper reports findings from a service evaluation undertaken within a single specialist child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) team. The team works closely with local authority children’s services to serve specific populations recognised as experiencing higher levels of mental health need, including children living in alter...

Children who are adopted are at greater risk of experiencing mental health difficulties than their non-adopted peers, and this has influenced decisions to develop dedicated care pathways, teams and clinical posts in child and adolescent mental health services. This article reports practice-based reflection and service evaluation findings on this ar...

This article adds to literature addressing research beneficence from a psychoanalytic perspective, providing reflections focussing on notions of containment and container-contained dynamics as derived from the Kleinian/post-Kleinian tradition of psychoanalysis. It does so by reference to the accounts of participants in a study which explored how pr...

Ayres et al.’s (2021) recent reflective account published in the BJMHN discusses Ayres’ experience undertaking a doctoral study concerned with how mental health nurses who have been assaulted by patients in secure settings make sense of this experience. This commentary recognises the importance of extending the dialogue initiated by the account, sp...

This article reports findings from a service evaluation involving interviews with 16 young people under the care of a single specialist child and adolescent mental health services team. The team serves various 'vulnerable' population groups, including children and young people living in residential and foster care, who are adopted, and who are invo...

This article reports on research that surveyed treatment provision for adults with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in English mental health and psychological therapy services. Survey methods and freedom of information requests were used to obtain data from NHS mental health trusts, clinical commissioning groups, and voluntary and private prov...

This article describes an innovative initiative based on principles of trauma-informed care which involves clinicians from a specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) team providing input to youth justice services. At a local level, the project seeks to help address recognised gaps in service provision whereby children and youn...

In specialist child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) provision serving children living in local authority care (i.e. who are looked-after) and other vulnerable groups, consultation with social care professionals and carers is an important part of care delivery. It functions as both a pathway to direct assessment and treatment and an ind...

Background Approaching qualitative interviews using principles drawn from psychoanalytic therapy can assist nurse researchers in developing nuanced accounts of participants’ and their own subjectivity. Yet, doing so means confronting questions about the use of psychoanalytic concepts and techniques outside the traditional clinical context of the co...

The topic of professional self-disclosure has been subject to uneven levels of attention in the social work literature. Although many writers and researchers have addressed the topic in the context of clinical social work, there has been limited dedicated attention to its use and role in routine practice in child protection and child welfare settin...

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) have had to respond to increased psychological distress while shifting to digital and remote forms of service delivery. This article provides some reflections on the provision of mental healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic to children and...

British psycho-social studies is a new paradigm of transdisciplinary scholarship situated at the borderlands of social and psychological theory. Its development has been represented as providing avenues for a more critical and reflexive engagement with psychoanalysis in social work, disentangled from the unfavourable meanings with which psychoanaly...

Purpose: This paper is concerned with what intensive family intervention professionals reveal to parents with whom they work about whether they themselves are parents or not, as a form of professional self-disclosure in child welfare work. The paper also addresses the act of lying in professional self-disclosure. Design/methodology/approach: The p...

Purpose: A series of questions were posed to all 152 English Local Authorities about Early Help provision to children and families not reaching the Children Act (1989) child in need threshold. Design: A freedom of information request was used to obtain information regarding recorded numbers, attributes and referral reasons for Early Help cases, ca...

Hollway and Jefferson’s free association narrative interview method is an approach to qualitative research interviewing that draws on concepts and practices traditionally associated with psychoanalytic therapy. Owing to this psychosocial framework, the method is an attractive proposition for psychodynamically orientated practitioner researchers. Va...

Background Following the development of the transdisciplinary field of British psychosocial studies, interest in the application of insights from psychoanalysis in qualitative research has grown in recent years among researchers in nursing and allied disciplines. Aim This paper addresses a paucity of attention to – and therefore lack of clarity co...

This thesis enquires into the application of concepts and practices associated with psychoanalysis (as a broad therapeutic tradition linked by a concern for what is unconscious) in qualitative social work research. It is specifically concerned with the theory and practice of psychoanalytically-informed research interviewing. The first half of the t...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report an analysis of arrangements in English mental health trusts to meet the needs of adult service users who are homeless. Homelessness is associated with various forms of mental ill-health, yet homeless people are not always well-served by statutory mental health services. In recent years, practice guida...

In this article, the development of a digital ‘toolkit’ for adoptive parents in the children’s social care service of a single local authority is described. A work in progress, the toolkit is to be accessed by parents online and involves a series of videos around parenting topics and the post-adoption therapeutic work undertaken in the service, as...

Social work change programmes rooted in a particular practice theory and design are increasingly a fixture of UK local authority social work and the focus of a small but developing body of research. However, in this research to date, there has been a lack of engagement with the perspectives of families. In this article, we detail findings from 23 f...

Accessible summary: Homeless persons are known to be highly vulnerable to psychological trauma, in events triggering periods of homelessness and the considerable social isolation and adversity suffered when homeless. This study provides an account of how mental health support work is experienced by homeless service users when it is informed by a p...

Accessible summary At some point in their life, most people experience an event which can be deemed traumatic. Following this experience however, only a minority develop severe and chronic psychological difficulties such as post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For this minority, traumatic experience can have highly adverse consequences including...