Mental health problems are increasing and affecting many people, especially children. The Decider Skills program teaches cognitive behavioral therapy skills to help people recognize and manage their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to improve mental wellbeing. It distills complex psychological concepts into engaging, memorable lessons delivered through role plays, props, and multimedia. Feedback led to simplified and preventative versions for different groups, and online options expanded access during the pandemic. The program is proving effective and spreading worldwide through use by various health and social organizations.
Mental health problems are increasing and affecting many people, especially children. The Decider Skills program teaches cognitive behavioral therapy skills to help people recognize and manage their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to improve mental wellbeing. It distills complex psychological concepts into engaging, memorable lessons delivered through role plays, props, and multimedia. Feedback led to simplified and preventative versions for different groups, and online options expanded access during the pandemic. The program is proving effective and spreading worldwide through use by various health and social organizations.
Mental health problems are increasing and affecting many people, especially children. The Decider Skills program teaches cognitive behavioral therapy skills to help people recognize and manage their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to improve mental wellbeing. It distills complex psychological concepts into engaging, memorable lessons delivered through role plays, props, and multimedia. Feedback led to simplified and preventative versions for different groups, and online options expanded access during the pandemic. The program is proving effective and spreading worldwide through use by various health and social organizations.
Mental health problems are increasing and affecting many people, especially children. The Decider Skills program teaches cognitive behavioral therapy skills to help people recognize and manage their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to improve mental wellbeing. It distills complex psychological concepts into engaging, memorable lessons delivered through role plays, props, and multimedia. Feedback led to simplified and preventative versions for different groups, and online options expanded access during the pandemic. The program is proving effective and spreading worldwide through use by various health and social organizations.
The Problem Mental health problems are increasing.
asing. The effects of stress, anxiety, depression and suicide are impacting our whole society; 1 in 4 of us will be affected by mental health problems every year (Mind). 10% of all children aged between 5-16 have a diagnosed mental health problem – that is 2 or 3 in every classroom (Kessler et al). 50% of all mental health problems are established by the age of 14 and 75% by the age of 18 (Gov.uk). Mental health care has traditionally been reactive. Evidence now supports a proactive, preventative, more positive approach to mental health and wellbeing.
The Solution The Decider Skills use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to teach children, young people and adults skills to recognise their own thoughts, feelings and behaviours, allowing them to monitor and manage their own emotions and mental health. The skills were designed to enable participants to make effective changes to help manage distress, regulate emotion, increase mindfulness, promote effective communication and help to live a more skilful, less impulsive life.
Background We are cognitive behavioural psychotherapists, who have worked in mental health for over 35 years. We developed The Decider Skills in 2010 in response to an identified service need in the adult mental health services in Guernsey for clients with enduring mental health problems. Following an initial pilot study, client experiences were included to develop this structured evidence-based skills programme. The aim was to reduce impulsivity whilst increasing resilience and confidence by learning thirty-two evidence-based skills based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT). Participants presented that the lack of early skills training in how to recognise and manage their own emotions and mental health meant they had formed unhelpful habits in their thinking, feeling and behaviour, which maintained their mental health problems.
Development We are always responsive to feedback from our users. The Decider Life Skills (12 skills simplified version) was developed as a proactive and preventative approach for children, young people and adults in education, health, work, charity, prison and social settings. Feedback from teachers prompted the development of The Decider Skills Good2Go. This includes young people teaching children the skills via videos as a whole school approach. The Covid 19 pandemic prompted creative solutions for remote working and learning with our Online training and Online Self-Help courses, online resources and free webinars.
Progress The Decider Skills model is proving to be a successful one, effective as a proactive approach to mental health, a waiting list intervention and/or part of a treatment plan and forming a core foundational skillset for all clinicians, clients and carers. The Decider Skills are spreading worldwide to New Zealand, Canada, Bermuda and especially in the UK and Republic of Ireland and extensively by the following Trusts and Organisations: NHS Trusts: Highland, Fife, Forth Valley, Lothian, Grampian, Ayrshire & Arran, Western Isles, Tayside, Leicestershire, Lancashire and South Cumbria, Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys. HSE Ireland, Barnardos, Action for Children, Youth Connections, Mind, many UK local councils and schools.
What “There is a great appetite for this training. We have incorporated The Decider Skills into our whole service with excellent feedback. I think more and more people are realising that we need to up-skill people to manage their own people say... health and lives otherwise the situation for healthcare is hopeless.” Dr Tim Agnew Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist NHS Highland
Find out more www.thedecider.org.uk email@thedecider.org.uk
We welcome all enquiries to talk in person or by phone.
(Cognition and Poetics) Burke, Michael - Troscianko, Emily - Cognitive Literary Science - Dialogues Between Literature and Cognition-Oxford University Press (2017) PDF
