Association for Psychological Therapies


The Association for Psychological Therapies is a body providing recognition of excellence, training, resources, and accreditation to professionals working in Mental Health and related areas, mainly in the UK's National Health Service and Independent Health providers, but also in Canada and Australia.

History

The Association for Psychological Therapies was founded in 1981 by Dr William Davies and Dr Derek Perkins, two clinical Psychologists based in Birmingham, England. APT's head office is now located in Thurnby, Leicestershire and was incorporated as a Private Limited Company under the name APT Training and Consultancy Ltd on 26 May 2006.
APT now employ over 50 tutors on a consultancy basis, and have provided professional development to over 100,000 people working in the helping professions.
In 2018 APT was involved in a court case against Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, who infringed a trademark registered by APT for the name ‘RAID’. APT has provided training for the mental health approach called ‘RAID’ since 1990, whilst Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust introduced the same acronym in 2009, for a specialist multidisciplinary mental health service. The High Court judge, HH Melissa Clarke, found that the trademark had been infringed. The case, held in Birmingham, was the first ever to be heard by the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court outside of London.

Resources developed

Tools that APT have developed include The RAID® System to help those working with disturbed and challenging behaviour, with research showing a reduced number of incidents of challenging behaviour in medium secure LD wards. Other tools and resources developed by APT include the DICES® Risk Assessment and Management System, used by mental health professionals to assess and manage the risks of suicide, non-suicidal self-injury, self-neglect and vulnerability, violence to others, and sexual assault, and Davies's structured interview for assessing adolescents in crisis.

Awards

APT was shortlisted for the Learning and Performance Institute, Learning Provider of The Year award in 2019 gaining the bronze award, and APT's Academic Director was shortlisted for the Investors in People, Leader of the Year award in 2018.