Ivano Mazzoncini - Senior Mental Health Nurse
Ivano Mazzoncini, Senior Mental Health Nurse
Families in Glasgow are benefitting from an established form of psychological therapy thanks to training provided by NES.
Behavioural Family Therapy (BFT) is a proven method of supporting individuals with mental health problems and their carers build up their own skills to deal with the many challenges they face. Its use is now being extended due to training provided by health professionals like Ivano Mazzoncini.
Ivano, a senior mental health nurse, had already trained in BFT but was funded by NES to go on a more intensive five day course in Birmingham to allow him to train others in the therapy. Since returning to Glasgow, he and other colleagues who completed the intensive course, have now trained an additional 32 people and are supervising others who have been trained.
"The support from NES was crucial in making this happen," said Ivano. "It allowed me to develop the skills I already had and enhanced them in many different ways."
Positive results are already being seen from the extension of this therapy in Glasgow with a reduction in hospital admissions, lower use of medication and a reduced burden for carers. "This approach sees the family, not as passive recipients of care, but as the experts in their own care who just need a brush up on their skills. That is what we are there to provide," said Ivano.
Psychological therapies have an important role to play in the NHS in Scotland and NES is training nurses like Ivano, and other professional staff, to extend the benefits of psychological therapies across Scotland.
