Our Trainers

Our trainers are unsurpassed in terms of both academic and clinical expertise. With a wealth of experience between them, our trainers are committed to providing you with the skills you need.

Rich Bell: Rich has worked in health and social care since 2001. Initially working with adults with learning disabilities in both residential and community settings, he then moved into the mental health sector and has worked in a variety of roles including community support work, service management and managing strategic projects including the Leeds Dual Diagnosis Project

Rich joined Community Links in August 2015, and became a qualified Mental Health First Aid Instructor (MHFA) in 2016, he currently delivers the adult and youth courses https://mhfaengland.org/. In 2016 Rich completed the ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) and SafeTALK training for trainer’s programmes and is a registered trainer with LivingWorks Education https://www.livingworks.net/. He regularly delivers suicide prevention training as part of the suicide prevention strategies for Leeds City Council and Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. In
February 2020 he achieved ASIST Bronze trainer status having delivered 25 workshops.

In 2017 Rich developed a suite of trauma informed training courses based on emerging best practice evidence from the field of trauma research. In 2018 this led to a collaboration with Humankind to deliver a cohesive training package containing key principals and learning which both the National Fulfilling Lives programme and MEAM have established are fundamental to working with multiple and complex needs. The complex needs training suite is delivered in partnership with West Yorkshire Finding Independence Project (WY-FI)
https://wy-fi.org.uk/complex-needs-training-suite/.

Academic background:

Rich completed a BA in Sociology at Leeds University in 2001. In 2012 he completed his M.Sc. in Mental Health Practice at Leeds Metropolitan University; his dissertation focused a service evaluation of Leeds Dual Diagnosis Project.

Publications:

Richard Bell, (2014) "A multi-agency evaluation of the Leeds Dual Diagnosis care co-ordination protocol", Advances in Dual Diagnosis, Vol. 7 Iss: 4, pp.162 – 184.http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/ADD-02-2014-0009

Mark Holland, Richard Bell, Liz Hughes, (2012) "The importance of local and regional networks in supporting dual diagnosis in clinical practice", Advances in Dual Diagnosis, Vol. 5 Iss: 4, pp.185 – 188.http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/17570971211281684

Hughes L, Trippier J, Kipping C, Bell R, Group Z. (2015) The Leeds Co-occurring Mental Health and Substance Use (Dual Diagnosis) Capability Framework. Huddersfield: University of Huddersfield. Cited as example of good practice in ‘Better care for people with co-occurring mental health and alcohol/drug use conditions: A guide for commissioners and service providers’ (PHE 2017) https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/625809/Co-occurring_mental_health_and_alcohol_drug_use_conditions.pdf
Catriona Palin: Catriona joined the Community Links training team in January 2020. Prior to that she spent 7 years working in a specialist sexual violence organisation designing and delivering a range of external training, coordinating service user involvement, and leading on communications, marketing and external partnership work. Before this role Catriona spent 5 years in the NHS working in various services and project management roles in both acute and primary care settings.
Catriona completed an MA (hons) in Politics at the University of Dundee in 2007. In 2011 she completed an MSc in Health and Public Leadership at the University of Birmingham. The dissertation centred on the findings from a series of focus groups with young people accessing healthcare at a children’s hospital and how appropriate they felt this environment was for their age group.

Catriona is a qualified Mental Health First Aider and has a level 3 Award in Education and Training.
Freelance trainers: CL Training also employs a team of freelance trainers whom we use to deliver specific courses. All are highly skilled and experienced trainers and specialists in their particular subject areas.