|
News Highlights - the latest developments in play therapy
Australia needs 4180 Play
Therapists or Practitioners with Therapeutic Play Skills
Latest Research Results as at April 2007 - Very Interesting Conclusions
Filial Play Coaching/Mentoring Course Development
'Play for Life' beats target
Australia
needs 4180 Play Therapists or Practitioners with Therapeutic
Play Skills
The latest in PTI's series of demand models has
been constructed for Australia.
This provides data on both
macro and micro levels. In fact the model works from a micro
level upwards.
The macro level provides an estimate of the number of
practitioners required for the whole country. This is used to
quantify the need to fund, train and manage the number of
therapists to work with children between the ages of 3 and 14.
These statistics may be used to attempt to persuade policy
makers of the resources required. They also give an indication
of the big opportunity available for new entrants to the
profession because the supply of play therapists certified to
international standards is small (almost non-existent in
Australia).
The micro level data answers the questions ‘So what? How does
it affect me?’ by producing the estimates for a very small local
area. All of our members are encouraged to use this data to plan
their own career development and to build it in to their
presentations for funding or use at job interviews. This data is
available for 414 small areas.
The model is based on the 2006 Census data showing the
population of children by age year in small geographic blocks
such as an enumeration area. We then use the parameters of:
suitability of play therapy or therapeutic play for each age
group; a national incidence of emotional, behaviour and mental
health problems; an average number of sessions required to
alleviate the problem; an average number of sessions per working
day; the average number of working days in a practitioner’s
year. Our software then calculates the number of practitioners
required for each area. The small enumeration areas are then
aggregated into larger more ones such as states as shown
below:
| State/Territory |
Estimated
No Practitioners Required |
Detailed data for any of the 414
small areas is available for PTAu members and bona fide
policy makers together with information upon the methodology
from Jeff Thomas, PTI's Director of Research at
jefferyht@yahoo.co.uk
|
|
ACT |
66 |
|
NSW |
1,366 |
|
NT |
50 |
|
OT |
1 |
|
QLD |
860 |
|
SA |
301 |
|
TAS |
101 |
|
VIC |
1,011 |
|
WA |
424 |
| Total |
4,181 |
Our fourth research report is based upon the total dataset (as at April 2007) held in SEPACTO, the UK's database of play therapy clinical outcomes, developed and managed by PTUK. It includes cases covered in previous reports.
The data has been supplied by 167 PTUK and PTI members.
Gender
The clients are two thirds boys, one third girls. This proportion has been remarkably consistent during the six years we have been recording data.
Age
The figures show that:
* The majority of clients being of primary school age.
* However some play therapists work with young people
Type of Intervention
This is a the second time we have carried out this analysis. The results are similar to the last time. The majority of the sessions are 1:1 with 48% being short term (1 to 12 sessions) and 36% being long term (over 12 sessions). Only 16% of the recorded cases used group work. It is rather surprising that group interventions are not used more frequently in the climate of cost effectiveness and throughput targets.
Changes in Total Difficulties
|
|
N |
% |
|
Improved |
524 |
68.59% |
|
No change |
61 |
7.98% |
|
Worse |
179 |
23.43% |
|
|
764 |
100.00% |
The 68.59% of cases showing a positive change is lower, by about 2%, than predicted from previous data. It was hypothesised that a large batch of data received from students contained cases who were initially assessed as ‘normal’ and where it would be difficult to effect a positive change – indeed providing therapy might stimulate dormant issues from the unconscious. An analysis of changes was undertaken using initial assessment scores of 10, 20 and 30. This shows that the percentage of cases showing a positive change increases with the severity of total difficulties problems.
As shown in the table below, by excluding the children who were in the 'normal' classification, 73% of the children showed a positive change.
Change in Total Difficulties –Clients With a Pre Therapy Score of 10+
|
|
N |
% |
|
Improved |
453 |
72.95% |
|
No change |
40 |
6.44% |
|
Worse |
128 |
20.61% |
|
|
621 |
100.00% |
Changes in Pro-Social Scores
|
|
N |
% |
|
Improved |
385 |
54.77% |
|
No change |
162 |
23.04% |
|
Worse |
156 |
22.19% |
|
|
703 |
100.00% |
As with total difficulties it was decided to test the hypothesis that cases with the more severe pro-social problems would show a higher percentage cases exhibiting positive change.
Changes in Pro-social – Clients Pre Therapy Score <5
|
|
N |
% |
|
Improved |
226 |
77.13% |
|
No change |
39 |
13.31% |
|
Worse |
28 |
9.56% |
|
|
293 |
100.00% |
The data again shows that the percentage of cases showing a positive change increases with the severity of the pro-social issues.
The full research report is available to PTAus members.
Filial Play Coaching/Mentoring Course Development
The 2007 Conference saw the launch of the APAC Filial Play Coach/Mentor Certificate course conforming to PTUK's recently set competency standards. It was an experimental 3-day course designed for experienced Play Therapists. It was rated highly by the participants who felt that an extra day would have been beneficial. Accordingly the next version of this course will be four days and some minor adjustments in content will be made. Timing and venue have yet to be set. Members interested in extending their play therapy practice and skills should email mokijep@aol.com. The emphasis is on the development of coaching and mentoring skills to enable parents to use non-directive play.
APAC are also currently delivering the first 6-day Filial Play Coach/Mentor course for an Education Authority. This is designed for those with little or no play therapy skills but have experience of working with parents and families. This includes: Social Workers, Health Visitors and Family Liaison Officers. The course teaches both non-directive play skills and coaching and mentoring techniques in an in-house environment. Organisations who have at least 16 staff who would benefit from this type of training should contact APAC on 01825 712312 or email mokijep@aol.com
These courses will be available in Australia in 2008 if there is a demand.
'Play for Life' beats its target
With 104 pages published in 2006 'Play for Life' beat its own target of 100 pages for the year. This is well ahead of the minimum commitment to provide 64 pages per year for members. Worldwide, it has the highest content of material for the play therapy practitioner of any journal.
'Play for Life' is sent to all PTAus members, free of charge.
Government Registration of Play Therapists - Latest Situation
In her opening address at the 2007 PTUK conference reiterated that PTUK wholeheartedly supports the government in its wish to regulate play therapy as a profession. She then declared that the "progress is DISGRACEFUL. The government wanted the psychology professions regulated by title by 2008. There’s no chance that this will happen. Our latest forecast is 2010 at earliest.
Even worse the government is paying lip service to consultation by only taking into account what it wants to hear rather than the measures that are really necessary to protect the public. So the process is DISGRACEFUL as well.
PTUK's position is still that we welcome regulation provided that:
* The registration body sets adequate standards that are based on competencies that have been shown to be effective.
* It is recognised that play therapy may be safely delivered by other professionals in a multi role position. To implement this it may be necessary to have more than one title.
The government shows no sign of listening or understanding these.
I said last year that the Health Professions Council - the HPC - as currently set up is not currently fit to regulate play therapy. If the competency standards set by the HPC for the currently registered Arts Therapists are a precedent they are far too low. Our current standards are way ahead."
PTUK has been engaged in discussions with the DoH and the HPC led by BPS, BACP and UKCP representing the counselling and psychotherapy professions.
Some professional titles, such as Arts Therapists, already registered with the HPC require a Masters degree qualification but others do not. It is far from clear what the requirements will eventually be. Any statements made that suggest that HPC standards have already been set for Play Therapists are not true and are misleading.
The training programme offered by APAC to PTUK standards covers all likely eventualities. We encourage all students to complete the Post Graduate Certificate in Therapeutic Play Skills and the Post Graduate Diploma in Play Therapy courses, including a total of 200 hours clinical work, to become a PTUK Certified Play Therapist and then to reach a total of 450 hours to become a PTUK Accredited Play Therapist. We also require evidence of clinical governance.
We suggest that students may wish to complete the MA in Practice Based Play Therapy, by dissertation, if they have a particular interest in play therapy research, to advance their career prospects or for personal satisfaction. At present it is not necessary to have an Masters level degree to become a Play Therapist. To suggest otherwise would be dishonest. There is no evidence, at the moment, to show that play therapy practitioners with an MA produce better clinical outcomes than those who do not have one. It may or may not be a future HPC requirement.
If however, you wish to 'cover all bases' by all means continue onto APAC's MA part of the programme.
HPC's policy is to set 'entry level' standards to safeguard the public. Professional organisations such as PTUK may then set their own higher standards. We believe that our current standards originally set in 2000 are at a higher level when compared to professional titles already registered by the HPC.
There has been progress in joint discussions with BAPT who agreed to our suggestion, made on the 7th August 2006, that a preliminary meeting to discuss a possible joint application for regulation should be held. A meeting was held on 23rd June with positive results towards working together on regulation of the profession. A number of issues and differences in approach were identified which need to be discussed further.
APAC Training Centres
APAC plans to open two new centres in Autumn 2007 - Edinburgh and Manchester. This follows the successful start of PTUK accredited play therapy training programmes in the Bristol, Cambridgeshire and Leeds (Barnsley) areas in 2006 to cope with the increased demand due to the popularity of the programme in producing safe and effective play therapy practitioners.
|
