NHS England is due to be abolished and NHS Talking Therapies integrated into the Department of Health. But without any guiding vision, personalities and saving jobs is likely to be the name of the game.
The history to date does not augur well:
- As originally envisioned in 2008, at the setting up of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Service [the predecessor of NHS Talking Therapies] the aim [Mission] was to provide evidence-based protocols for specific disorders.
- In 2023 IAPT became NHS Talking Therapies for depression and the anxiety disorders. Psychological therapy became talking therapy and the scope limited to depression and the anxiety disorders. [Vision obscured}
- This has given rise to the question ‘what are the boundaries of talking therapy’, ‘is anything not talking therapy.?’ By 2026 it has become clear that the Service addresses ‘distress’ as opposed to specific psychological problems. Government is spending £2 billion a year on adult and child mental health but there is no mandate for ‘distress’ being the focus. The key Value is that those with psychological disorder are enabled to flourish, as to are the ‘enablers’. The needs of the distressed are, arguably, already catered for by the Citizen’s Advice Bureaux (CABx) addressing financial, housing needs etc. It is a waste of resources to have therapists become de facto CABX workers.
The plot has been well and truly lost, despite over a million recipients of the Service a year. The time for a new vision is well overdue.
Dr Mike Scott
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