It is recognised that training is required for staff working with people with a diagnosis of personality disorder, as it poses challenges requiring particular skills and abilities (National Institute for Mental Health in England, 2003a). The proposal to train graduate primary care mental health workers (GPCMHWs) to work with the client group met with some scepticism by senior clinicians. However, the experience of providing training and supervision to the graduate primary care mental health workers to work with clients with personality disorder in Camden and Islington has proved positive. Several characteristics of the GPCMHWs identified in the training literature might contribute to this positive experience. Those factors include cognitive ability, motivation to learn, age, and attitudes. Initial findings from the evaluation of the training shows that graduate workers respond positively to the training, showing improvements in self-rated knowledge and skills relating to working with the client group, and an eagerness to learn more. The relevance of this to the personality disorder capabilities framework are described.

This paper examines in detail the work of two community personality disorder pilot projects whose aim is largely preventative. It will be some time before the impact of the projects can be determined but both are innovative and raise questions about the ability of services to offer early intervention to those with personality disorder.

The objective of the review was to explore the relevance of the relationship of compassion and attachment to mental health. APAPsycInfo, APAPsycArticles, CINAHL, MEDLINE, Social Science Database, Sociology Database, PTSDpubs, Pubmed, and Web of Science were searched from their inception until November 9, 2021. Peer-reviewed empirical studies exploring the compassion–attachment relationship in individuals with mental health difficulties through outcome measures were included. Studies were excluded if non-empirical, with non-clinical/subclinical samples, in a language other than English and if they did not consider the compassion–attachment relationship. Risk of bias was assessed through The Newcastle–Ottawa Scale and the Downs and Black Checklist. Seven eligible studies comprising 4839 participants were identified, with low to moderate risk of overall bias. Findings indicated a more straightforward relationship between self-compassion and secure attachment and confirmed the relevance of compassion and attachment to psychological functioning. Limitations concerned study design, the use of self-report measures, and low generalisability. While suggesting mechanisms underpinning compassion and attachment, the review corroborates the role of secure attachment and self-compassion as therapeutic targets against mental health difficulties. This study is registered on PROSPERO number CRD42021296279.