The programme acknowledges however that some families are less ‘visible’ within mental health services or experience particularly poor access to psychosocial interventions, based on their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or any of the other personal protected characteristics defined by the UK’s Equality Act (2010).
The Behavioural Family Therapy model itself has been proven to be culturally robust and indeed the Meriden Programme has delivered training and provided consultation to services and organisations all over the world. When undertaken, family work has been proven to be beneficial for a whole range of families in a variety of circumstances – however access to the intervention remains problematic for many groups and communities.
Enabling ease of access to a range of culturally sensitive, family focussed interventions is a theme that runs throughout the Meriden Programmes training provision. However, at the request of practitioners and commissioners, the programme has run specific study days, conferences and training around working with diversity. An example of this has been the “Caring for Carers” programme specifically adapted to Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) carers, an evaluation of which can be found below.
The Programme has also acted as a resource for Behavioural Family Therapy (BFT) trainers and clinicians in terms of supervision, training materials, resources and an opportunity to network with those specifically interested in working with Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) families and diverse communities.