Published on: 16 April 2024
A psychologist at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded a prestigious national clinical-academic fellowship to help develop a new care pathway for people with complex emotional needs experiencing a mental health crisis.
Dr Liam Ennis, a clinical psychologist, has secured a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Doctoral Clinical-Academic Fellowship.
The Health Education England (HEE)/NIHR Integrated Clinical and Practitioner Academic (ICA) programme provides awards for research training within health and social care, to support professionals developing careers that combine research and research leadership with continued practice and professional development.
Liam, who has worked for the Trust for five years, will continue his clinical development with Derbyshire Healthcare during the three year fellowship. The research project will focus on creating a pathway for people with complex emotional needs who are experiencing a crisis.
Patients with complex emotional needs often have a poor experience of using emergency mental health services, and colleagues can feel uncertain on how to help. Liam’s research project aims to explore how the NHS can offer a better service and improve experiences for service users and staff.
Liam was thrilled to hear the news about his fellowship, and said: “I am really excited about bringing staff and service users together in this project to improve services. I want to enable people who might not feel listened to very often. It is great to be able to focus on research for the next three years.
"I want to say thank you to the people in the Trust who have gone out of their way to enable the Fellowship.”
Stuart Clensy, Area Service Manager for the division of Psychology and Psychological Therapies within the Trust, congratulated Dr Ennis, and said: “We’re very proud to congratulate our colleague Dr Liam Ennis on securing a prestigious NIHR Clinical-Academic Fellowship.
“Liam’s exciting research aims to make a difference to the lives of people in Derbyshire as well as across the country.”
For further details on NIHR’s fellowship programme visit the NIHR website.
