Holding many safety ropes: the role of the DSL

“In Too Many Minds: managing Safeguarding and Risk across multiple professionals and agencies in complex situations. Usable ideas from AMBIT (Adaptive Mentalization Based Integrative Treatment)” 

The talk will include a basic description of Mentalizing (a framework for understanding human communication) and how this can be helpfully applied to safeguarding settings in which accurate and proportionate communication is essential, but is frequently compromised, not least on account of the levels of professional anxiety and professional shame in such settings. AMBIT, as an approach used in hundreds of teams worldwide, will be outlined, and several applicable tools developed in AMBIT to help teams develop effective systems of help (especially where help-seeking is often, at best, unconventional) will be introduced. 

Dr Dickon Bevington is a child and adolescent psychiatrist with more than 30 years’ experience working in frontline services in the NHS. He is Medical Director and Safeguarding Lead at the Anna Freud, an internationally renowned charity developing next generation approaches to therapy and care, and with a specific focus on closing the gap between the extent of need and the availability of evidence-based support. He is a co-founder of AMBIT and has published widely in the field of multiple needs and complexity, with a particular focus on systemic and organisational responses to support workers exposed to the pressures of frontline work. He regularly teaches all around the world.