Dr Miriam Silver Email & Phone Number

Matlock, Gb

Matlock, Derbyshire

I'm a consultant clinical psychologist with a specialist interest in improving the quality of services for Looked After and Adopted children, and the Founder/CEO of BERRI. Our primary focus at present is on our evidence-based outcome metrics, which are designed to help understand the needs of complex children, identify what placements are needed and what services are effective in making positive change for them. BERRI is an easy to use online questionnaire designed to help identify children's needs, with tools to track how they change over time. This increases insight for carers, allowing them to make greater impact on the child's functioning and wellbeing. You can zoom in to target and track specific issues on BERRI, or zoom out to give an overview of the data for a group or service, allowing organisations to evidence improved outcomes, and commissioners to choose the right placement and services to help children and young people achieve the best possible outcomes. BERRI is used in children's homes, fostering, secure units, schools, therapy/interventions services and local authorities. It can help to identify the psychological needs of children, and evidence the efficacy of placements or interventions. See www.BERRI.org.uk to subscribe or for more information.I am known for explaining issues related to attachment, trauma and neuroscience in accessible terms to a variety of audiences, both through my book "Attachment in Common Sense and Doodles" and through conferences and training events. With my team I offer training, service evaluation and consultation services to local authorities, fostering agencies, residential care providers, lawyers, health professionals and anyone working with children and families. We also undertake specialist psychological assessments for the family courts.

I have joined the ChAPTRe group at the Anna Freud Centre in an honorary capacity, because of my interests in Child Attachment and Psychological Therapies Research. We are working together on data from my adoption risk and resilience study (where I have audited all the paperwork and then followed up a cohort of 116 children placed for adoption until adulthood), my survey of staff working in children's residential care, and my data about the psychological needs of children in Care. I am hoping that this will lead to fruitful collaborations and help to ensure that I publish papers about my research findings in the field of looked after and adopted children.

I have joined the department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology to publish papers and seek grant funding in relation to my research about improving outcomes for Looked After and adopted children. I am working closely with the Child Attachment and Psychological Therapies Research unit at the Anna Freud Centre, and hope to soon publish papers about the BERRI, as well as some of the other interesting data I have collected from my work. One current topic catching my research attention is the surprisingly high prevalence of ADHD-like symptoms in Looked After children and those on the edge of Care, and how these appear to relate to trauma history (rather than an assumed neurochemical/organic aetiology).

Virtual

I founded and continue to administrate the largest UK website for clinical psychologists, those working in psychology and psychology students. It gets over 10 million page views per year and has around 8500 active members. The site contains a wiki with answers to the 200+ most commonly asked questions (viewed up to 165,000 times each), a discussion forum with 150,000 posts, a LiveChat facility where you can network and chat with peers in real time, and we publish an e-magazine called Aspire, for which I am Editor. I also blog at http://clinpsyeye.wordpress.com

Uk

I developed the psychology pathway and trained the staff for the highly commended Cross Regional Project. As Clinical Director at Keys (from Feb 2015), I introduced a system of clinical governance and trained over 800 staff to understand the impact of trauma, maltreatment and attachment relationships. I designed and implemented a new pathway of assessment, formulation, care planning and outcome measurement, using my BERRI system (see www.BERRI.org.uk) and developed the Keys Psychology service.

I led the team within Northamptonshire CAMHS providing services for Looked After and Adopted Children. I specialised in attachment issues and the impact of early trauma.Prior to this I was also the lead for neurodevelopmental disorders. I have worked in multi-disciplinary and multi-agency contexts, offering training, consultation, assessments and therapy relating to complex cases, differential diagnosis and attachment relationships. I have been involved in the design and management of CAMH services.Beginning during this time, I was also the Chair of the national network of Clinical Psychologists working with Looked After and Adopted Children (CPLAAC) for five years, and on the Child Faculty Committee of the British Psychological Society for four years, where I edited a special issue of Child and Family Clinical Psychology about attachment and was a chapter lead in What Good Looks Like in Psychological Services for Children, Young People and their Families, writing about the needs of children known to social care services and/or the courts. I was also on the committee for the NICE guidance for Attachment, and the SCIE guidance for the mental health needs of Looked After Children, as well as the FJC/BPS group that wrote the best practice standards for psychologists as expert witnesses in the family courts.

Leeds, United Kingdom

I worked in the CAMH service covering east Leeds, with an interest in neurodevelopmental disorders, and also undertook more specialist work related to child protection and Looked After Children.