Our Origins
The Charlie Waller Institute was launched in January 2008 as a collaboration between the University of Reading, Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (BHFT) and the Charlie Waller Trust. Its former Directors (Professor Roz Shafran, Professor Shirley Reynolds) led the Institute in rapid growth with the support of funding from the Charlie Waller Trust and BHFT. Since then, the Charlie Waller Institute has grown rapidly in size and strength.
The Charlie Waller Trust was created by the Waller family in 1997 in response to the loss of their son and brother Charlie. Charlie suffered from depression at a time when mental health was more heavily stigmatised and at 28 he died by suicide. The Trust has since become one of the UK’s most respected mental health charities.
The Charlie Waller Trust enables people to understand and talk openly about mental health, maintain and enhance their mental wellbeing, and have the confidence to seek help when they need it. Please visit the Charlie Waller Trust website to find out more about their work, or visit Our work with CWT page for co-funded course information and case studies of our work together.
Objectives
The aims of the Charlie Waller Institute are to:
- train clinicians in evidence-based psychological practice, in particular those recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE);
- evaluate the effectiveness of the training to ensure that it improves clinician knowledge, skills and patient outcomes;
- undertake research that adds to the evidence base on effective psychological interventions.
Training
As one of its main objectives, the Charlie Waller Institute delivers a range of government-funded clinical training programmes to increase the psychological workforce. These programmes lead to a recognised qualification in the field of mental health practice from the University of Reading. The Institute also provides non-clinical and Continued Professional Development (CPD ) training. These are in the form of short, high-quality courses delivered by nationally recognised clinical academics who are leaders in their field.
For more information on the training we offer, please visit our Training page.