As a founding sponsor, the Charlie Waller Trust has always been intrinsically linked with the Charlie Waller Institute. The clinical training provided by the Institute increases the number of trained clinicians who can treat individuals, and therefore complements the work of the Trust to enhance support available to those with mental health difficulties. The activity of both organisations contributes to their shared aim of educating people and supporting them to talk openly about their mental health.
Shared values between the two organisations include evidence-based practice, inclusivity, excellence, and passion for what we do. Both have a shared aim to reduce the stigma around mental health difficulties. Although the Charlie Waller Trust mainly focuses on children and young people, and those who work with and support them, the Institute offers clinical training and CPD in both Children and Young People, and Adult treatment spheres.
Charlie Waller Chair
The Charlie Waller Trust also funds a Research Chair in Evidence-Based Psychological Treatment at the Charlie Waller Institute within the University of Reading. This Chair is currently held by Professor Stella Chan, whose research is focused on adolescent mental health and wellbeing, spanning across basic scientific investigations to development of preventative interventions. Current work includes:
- Resilience Rucksack project, which, in co-production with young people, aims to provide key resilience and wellbeing skills to children in the transitional stage between primary and secondary school
- Project Soothe, a global Citizen Science project developing soothing photographs as accessible resources to promote mental health and wellbeing
- Ways to Wellbeing project, a study to examine how lifestyle factors affect young people’s mood and wellbeing using routinely collected data
- Emotional Vulnerability in Adolescents (EVA) study, a five-year longitudinal study of secondary school aged children and young people examining the link between anxiety/depression and a range of biological and psychosocial factors
- Reading Resilience Network, working with Berkshire Health NHS Foundation Trust to develop collaborative projects that help meet key challenges in young people’s mental health
- NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Centre (BRC) partner, contributing to research into adolescent mental health through collaborating in three of the eleven themes
Stella Chan has wide academic and professional connections, being an elected Fellow of Royal Society of Edinburgh (Scotland’s National Academy) as well as a regular contributor to book and science festivals, as well as media work.
For more information on any of Stella’s work, please contact her at s.chan3@reading.ac.uk .
Training we fund, create and deliver together
In addition to shared values and funding, the Charlie Waller Trust and Charlie Waller Institute work especially closely on specific projects that combine each organisation’s expertise and skills. Currently these include the Senior Mental Health Leadership training for school and college workers, and the Parent/Carer Peer Support training programme. Read on for more details of these projects!
Senior Mental Health Leadership (SMHL)
The Senior Mental Health Leadership in Education Settings (SMHL) training programme is a remote CPD offer available to all educational settings across the country, with Department for Education financial support. The programme trains designated staff in schools and colleges to fulfil the Senior Mental Health Lead role, developing and implementing a whole school/whole college approach to mental health and wellbeing. Please see the dedicated SMHL page here.
Charlie Waller Institute and Charlie Waller Trust put in a joint bid to run this training, and have co-delivered from the very beginning. Working together to deliver this training offer, CWT bring their experience of delivering mental health training in schools to key stakeholders (including teachers and senior leadership teams), while CWI bring their own expertise in considering whole institution approaches which is also taught as part of their Educational Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) credit-bearing course. Content, delivery via Blackboard Ultra (the University of Reading’s Virtual Learning Environment), and administration is split between the two organisations.
Parent/Carer Peer Support (PCPS)
The Parent/Carer Peer Support (PCPS) training is open to those with previous lived experience as parents or carers of children and young people with mental health difficulties. The course provides training to act as a peer support worker to other parents and carers currently experiencing similar situations; support could involve running peer support groups and online presence, signposting, and wellbeing support. The hope is that PCPS workers will sit within or complement existing mental health services for children and young people, but focus on providing much-needed pastoral support and advice for affected parents.
CWI and CWT were jointly involved, along with the PLACE Network and Cellar Trust, in the national pilot for PCPS training in 2022. Content of the programme was co-produced and developed together with partner organisations, lived experience partners and families currently accessing mental health treatment. Each session in the first cohort was delivered jointly between a CWT and CWI colleague, and administration of the course was also shared between organisations. Charlie Waller Trust has taken more of the lead in subsequent cohorts, but the Charlie Waller Institute remains involved with developing the curriculum, collecting and analysing attendee data and outcomes, and negotiating rollout in other institutions.
Scholarships
The Charlie Waller Trust have also linked with the Charlie Waller Institute in the past by formally providing scholarships to students from minoritised backgrounds. This generous support was set up in memory of Caroline Gilbey, a long-time supporter of the Trust’s work and fundraising, and has so far supported two students to study on the Postgraduate Diploma in Evidence-Based Psychological Treatments (now Postgraduate Diploma in Evidence-Based Psychological Treatments (High Intensity)).
Komel Jalil, scholarship recipient in 2023
Hewa Khalilifar, scholarship recipient in 2021
For more details on the Caroline Gilbey scholarships, please visit the Charlie Waller Trust’s website.