Community Liaison Group
The Community Liaison Group brings together people who have used mental health services, as well as carers and community members, to contribute to all aspects of clinical psychology training from selection and curriculum development right through to providing training themselves.
What we do
We aim to establish good relations between the community, professionals providing services to them, and staff within the University.
The group works to ensure that lecturers and trainees remain person-centred and focused on recovery, and that they recognise that people who have used services are experts in their own right through their lived experience.
The Community Liaison Group is associated with the Clinical Psychology (ClinPsyD) programme and the Faculty Centre for Engagement and Involvement.
Our objectives
We aim to establish community involvement in a number of key areas of the ClinPsyD training programme.
These include:
- the selection of trainees (i.e. interviews);
- developing and providing teaching in the form of lectures and workshops (the curriculum);
- ensuring that community and service-user perspectives are considered in research;
- training the programme team, placement supervisors and lecturers to understand the needs of the local community.
Our activities
The Community Liaison Group's beginnings go back to an initial project to engage people who had experience of using health services through adverts in health centres, Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS) and hospitals throughout the north-west.
This was later extended to include community members in general, in recognition that many marginalised communities do not access health services.
Members of the group have participated in:
- executive and curriculum meetings;
- delivering and assessing the quality of lectures;
- interviewing and selecting the trainee intake;
- developing new community-centred ways of teaching;
- participating in the annual review days;
- consulting on the design and delivery of research projects.
The group has presented at regional best practice conferences, developed an annual newsletter, shared practice with other University departments and gained national recognition during the Quality Assurance Agency Major Review process and the Accreditation Visit of the British Psychological Society (BPS).
Contact us
The Community Liaison Group is based within the Clinical Psychology department of the School of Health Sciences.
The main contact for the group is Dr James McManus, a Clinical Tutor.
Tel: +44 (0)161 306 0400/0401
Email: james.mcmanus@manchester.ac.uk
Address
Community Liaison Group
Clinical Psychology 2nd Floor, Zochonis Building
The University of Manchester
Brunswick Street Manchester
M13 9PL
UK