19th Jun 2026
Care in Mind presenting at BIGSPD 2026
BIGSPD (British and Irish Group for the Study of Personality Disorder) held its annual conference this week in Blackpool #BIGSPD26 and Care in Mind were delighted to be there. Our founder, Dr David Kingsley, is a member of the BIGSPD executive committee and also presented a workshop alongside colleagues Dan Warrender, Keir Harding, Hollie Berrigan and Jorge Zimbron. BIGSPD is unusual amongst academic conferences in that they support the attendance of many experts by lived experience, which adds immensely to the richness of the discussion and helps us as professionals to understand the voice of those who use services and to change our practice accordingly.
Our workshop was on the subject of ‘When Safe Practice Creates New Risk: Restriction, Blame and Clinical Outcomes’. We discussed how, as professionals, we can practice in a relational way which is least restrictive and collaborative, working in partnership with the people we support. This approach can feel quite vulnerable to criticism, as some external agencies or bodies may feel that we ought to be ‘stopping’ people from engaging in risk behaviours rather than working alongside them to help them to make meaningful and longer term changes themselves. Staff can themselves doubt themselves, as it can feel ‘easier’ to ‘take control’ and restrict behaviours than working alongside someone who is engaging in risky activities. Clearly there are times when people’s risk escalates to a place where we do need to increase restriction – least restriction doesn’t always mean no restriction – and sometimes a short re-admission to hospital can help a young person to ‘reset’ and to come back to us with renewed motivation to work alongside us to move forward toward recovery.
However in most cases we believe that it is important to push forward together and to manage risk collaboratively. This involves all members of the team working along the same lines and supporting one another when things are tough. At Care in Mind we believe that valuing and supporting our teams is the way that we can best help them to value and support our young people, so good training, staff support, reflective practice and supervision are essential to keep our staff motivated and effective and avoid burn-out. Working in close partnership with other agencies is also essential, making sure that we have detailed risk management plans that are shared and agreed with all stakeholders involved in a young person’s care.
Most importantly, we can evidence that our least restrictive approach is effective – we are really proud of our outcomes which speak for themselves and give us the confidence to push forward without fear so that we can help young people continue on their journeys toward recovery and independence.