While we are waiting: Experiences of waiting for and receiving psychological therapies on the NHS, 25th July 2008, We Need to Talk Coalition
Click on the report title for Full-text Access
Abstract:A group of leading mental health charities has published a report which says that the lives of those stuck on long NHS waiting lists for psychological treatments are being damaged as a result. Mental health problems can worsen, relationships can break down and some people are forced to take time off from work – or give up a job completely – according to While we are waiting.
National clinical guidelines recommend that psychological treatments, such as cognitive behavioural therapy and psychotherapy, should be made available on the NHS. But such therapies remain difficult to access and the wait for patients is long – often more than six months, sometimes years.
One participant who took part in the report’s research said: “The assessment was incredible…I felt that someone finally understood. When I was told that the wait after assessment was two years it felt like a real let down, offering a life line and [then] snatching it away.”
The report comes ahead of the roll out of the Government’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme, which is expected to bring 3,600 extra therapists to half of England’s primary care trusts (PCTs) in the next three years and to reduce waiting times in those areas dramatically.
Filed under: CBT Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Psychotherapy, Therapy, depression | Tagged: cbt, cognitive behavioiural therapy, Mind, nhs, psychological therapies, Psychotherapy, therapies, we need to talk
