57. Neil Scott Gordon. Nursing and the development of KUF for OPD Pathway

Dr Neil Scott Gordon is a forensic psychotherapist and has worked for over 40 years as a senior clinician and supervisor in high secure and community settings. He has had an extraordinary career in psychiatric nursing and forensic psychotherapy. The final years of his working life were devoted to the development and roll out of KUF (Knowledge and Understanding Framework), the major training development in the field of 'personality disorder' in the past half century.

He has conducted research into the client’s view of psychotherapy and has explored how psychotherapists in high secure environments adapt their therapeutic style in a context sensitive way. He has a Professional Doctorate in Psychotherapy and holds Masters Degrees in Organisation Development & Consultancy, and in Advanced Mental Health Practice. He co developed and delivered the Schema therapy group programme at Rampton High Security Hospital UK with Dr Kerry Beckley and was formerly responsible for multidisciplinary training and workforce development in the personality disorder service.He worked as a Senior Fellow in the Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham University, where he was responsible for the development of the the National Personality Disorder, Knowledge and Understanding Framework (KUF) commissioned by the UK Department of Health and Ministry of Justice. He has published articles on a wide range of topics including: schema therapy, personality disorder, organisational change, mental health education and qualitative research. He co-edited a text book on 'Working positively with the challenges of personality disorder in secure settings' which was published by Wiley in 2010.

https://www.institutemh.org.uk/images/KUF_prospectus_Final_OU_Approved.pdf