National Personality Disorder
Development Programme

The “Thames Valley Initiative” is one of eleven national pilot projects supported by the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) to deliver innovative, effective and user-friendly services for those diagnosable with “Personality Disorder”. It was planned by a partnership of sixteen agencies, and is managed by Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire mental health trusts.

The project builds on many years experience in the field. This includes work at Winterbourne House Therapeutic Community in Reading (cited as a “Notable Practice Site” in the NIMHE “No Longer a Diagnosis of Exclusion” policy guidance),  pioneering and beacon services such as Grendon Prison, small non-statutory projects, and a pilot day therapeutic community service set up in Oxford in 2002. Ex-service users have been close partners in planning it all. The project started in April 2004.

Here you can find:

• details of the services in Oxfordshire (other counties to follow)

• access to information about training opportunities and potential training collaboration

• pages and links to explain the philosophy and theory of the underlying "recovery model"

• outline of completed, current and planned research and evaluation

• a list of organisations who are connected with the project or involved in it, and invitation for others to make contact

• the original proposal with the service model, training model and ideas behind it