Trauma support, screening and training: one year of the CAST centre at CNWL

The Centre for Anxiety, Stress & Trauma (CAST) is celebrating one year since its official launch. We've been recognising some of the work and achievements of the team in that time. 

CAST was established at CNWL to bring together and disseminate the Trust’s extensive expertise in the fields of anxiety, stress and psychological trauma. This includes significant experience in managing major incidents, carrying out research (particularly on trauma and major incidents), and offering training and consultancy to external organisations.

Over the last year, the team at CAST has: 

• Provided clinical services to police and emergency services
• Provided psychological support to all those involved in the Grenfell Public Inquiry at the request of the Inquiry team
• Provided support and help to school staff
• Offered advice on the management of major incidents, based on the Trust’s extensive experience managing major incidents like Grenfell and the Ladbroke Grove train crash
• Designed and provided a psychological support programme to refugee nurses coming to the UK to work in the NHS as part of a national programme
• Delivered the Trust’s Afghan Evacuee Response in North West London, proactively screening and supporting people arriving from Afghanistan and residing in hotels following the evacuation of Kabul in 2021; this followed on from the work with arrivals at Heathrow and in the quarantine hotels led by Emma Kennedy
• Worked with other organisations nationally and locally on issues around the Ukrainian resettlement programme
• Delivered training and consultancy on trauma to blue light services and to other organisations involved in supporting public inquiries into major incidents
• Developed and are running a research programme aimed at learning lessons from the Grenfell Tower response funded by NIHR and involving several universities. The aim is to make recommendations for the management of future major incidents
• Initiated the development of a programme of research aimed at everyday clinical problems of importance to Trust staff in collaboration with Brunel University

A group effort

Clinical and Academic Director John Green said: “This has been an incredibly busy and often challenging year. CAST has worked on two major resettlement programmes. 

"The work of Jai Adhyaru and her many colleagues with Afghan refugees in hotels has attracted national attention. Tez Tesfa-Michael, psychologist and nurse, and Agnes Kocsis, who has expertise in international relocation, are both experts by experience who have played key roles in our support to refugee nurses arriving in the UK.

"Meanwhile Kerry Young and her team from Woodfield Trauma service, with whom we work closely, have provided national training to IAPT services on dealing with the needs of refugees and have provided invaluable advice to CAST.”

He added: “I have been incredibly impressed by the quality of nurses coming into the NHS through the national programme, including the five nurses who were welcomed here at CNWL. Our work with refugees has raised the broader issue of how we, as a sector and as a country, can best meet the mental health needs of other refugees.”

Recognition and reflection

There has been high-profile recognition for members of the CAST team. Dr Sarah Heke and her colleagues received commendations from the London Metropolitan Police for their work with traumatised police officers as well as supporting the Grenfell Public Inquiry.

Sarah said: “The team have worked very hard in meeting with, and providing psychological therapy to, over 800 officers and will continue to meet the further 400 officers who will be invited for a health check in the next year.  In recognition of this work, the team received a commendation “to recognise the professionalism, empathy, sincerity and caring nurturing way” in which the service helped many of the first responders.”

Meanwhile, the Afghan Evacuee Response work was chosen as an exemplar of effective outreach and Dr Jai Adhyaru spoke about the project at a Special Interest Day hosted by the APPTS.

Reflecting on the enthusiasm and hard work of the screening team that made it possible, Jai said: “When a call for support was shared in our Trust’s ‘3-minute read’, I was immediately contacted by staff keen to offer their time, their language skills, their cultural understanding of migration and movement and their experience working with people affected by trauma. From all 5 boroughs and from a wide range of occupational roles, the screening team learned from each other to develop an outreach approach that was culturally relevant and met the needs of people who might otherwise be forgotten by mainstream services.”

Looking back on one year of CAST, John Green said: “A new service always takes time to develop momentum, but we have done a lot, thanks to the support of large numbers of Trust staff, volunteers, patients and senior leaders. Alex Belsey, the CAST programme manager, and I are deeply grateful to all those who have given their help and advice.”

The team at CAST can be contacted via email at cast.cnwl@nhs.net.

To learn more about CAST and our work, visit castcentre.org.