School of Medicine

Aims / Mission Statement

The Individual Support Programme (ISP) sits within the School of Medicine. It provides individual support to doctors and medical students who are struggling with non-clinical aspects of their work performance. Since its inception in 2001 the programme has received over 250 referrals. The ISP provides a "needs" assessment and structured remediation. The service is founded on case management and the biopsychosocial model of rehabilitation. It uses behaviour change models to support change. The service is led by an Occupational Health Physician, and is supported by a General Practitioner with Occupational Health experience, three Occupational Psychologists, a Health Psychologist, a Language Specialist and two Administrators.

The ISP has service level agreements with the School of Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education and the Medical School at Cardiff University. Individual Trusts in England, Scotland and Wales refer independently to the service. The ISP has close relationships with other deaneries in the UK and the National Clinical Assessment Service (NCAS).

The ISP has also developed and piloted an online educational package for educational supervisors about managing performance. This programme is now being used by both the London and Wales Deanery as core training. The programme is now being actively sought by other UK deaneries. The team also provide face to face training on managing performance issues in doctors and managing difficult conversations around performance.

The ISP undertakes research in the field of performance in medicine and has published in the field. Two research projects have led to the successful completion of MSc dissertations for two Occupational Psychologists.