We are delighted to announce that Prof Glynis Murphy (Co-Director and Professor of Clinical Psychology & Disability at the Tizard Centre) has been appointed to the prestigious position of Chair of the NICE Guideline Development Group for Challenging Behaviour in People with Learning Disabilities. Prof Murphy was interviewed for the position by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, which is one of the four Centres within NICE.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) was established as a Special Health Authority for England and Wales on 1 April 1999. It is part of the NHS and provides authoritative and reliable guidance on healthcare for patients, healthcare professionals and the wider public. One of its core responsibilities is to produce clinical guidelines to improve the quality of clinical care. On 1 April 2005 NICE joined with the Health Development Agency to become the new National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
NICE guidelines are evidence-based, systematically developed statements that assist clinicians and patients in making decisions about appropriate healthcare for specific clinical circumstances. The advice contained must be derived from the best research evidence available using predetermined and internationally agreed methods, and including consideration of cost-effectiveness.
There are 4 professionally led National Collaborating Centres (NCCs) established to support the development and delivery of NICE guidelines, one of these being the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH). Established in 2001, the NCCMH is responsible for developing mental health guidelines, and is a partnership between the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) and the British Psychological Society (BPS). The aims of guidelines looked at by the Groups (Centres) being to bring about genuine and lasting improvements in patient care
Guidelines are based on the best available research evidence. The NCCMH establishes a Guideline Development Group (GDG) for each guideline, consisting of health and social care professionals, lay representatives, and technical experts. The GDG develops each guideline by assessing the available evidence and deriving from it a series of clinical recommendations. Research recommendations are also developed which highlight gaps in the evidence to inform future research in this area.
For more information http://www.nccmh.org.uk/guidelines_methodology.html