Educational fund for creative thinking

The AFT Fund for Creative Initiatives in Training, Research, Supervision and Practice

We were very impressed by the interesting and diverse applications that were submitted by the deadline 31st December. Three proposals were accepted and full reports on the outcome of these projects will be given in due course.

One was to encourage parental and grandparental experiences within families when a child has a diagnosis of ADHD.  This concurred with the principle of giving research participants and the users of our therapeutic approaches a stronger voice.

The fund has also provided joint funding to support a two day start up staff training event for 16 – 20 mental health staff on running Multi-Family Group sessions for families with a relative experiencing first onset diagnosis.  Experiences in Norway suggest that the majority of families in contact with early intervention psychosis services can be effectively helped by this approach.  It was felt important to support an initiative which promotes systemic and family ideas/ practices at a time when psychological therapies are being reviewed nationally.

Thirdly a proposal was accepted to support making a film in tribute to Dr.Gianfranco Cecchin, based on a video of a workshop presentation in Cardiff from 1999. The film will also include interviews with family therapists who had an association with Dr. Cecchin asking them for comments on his contribution to Systemic theory and practice and any anecdotes they would like to share in memory of him.