Currently, Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners (PWPs) are expected to attend workshops sponsored by the developers of computer assisted CBT (Silver Cloud) and an artificial intelligence company (Limbic). But what will this achieve for the person in the street? At present 1 in 3 people attend just 1 assessment/treatment session in NHS Talking Therapies [Scott (2024)]. Are they seriously more likely to engage more with a computer/AI? The obvious need is for a therapist to give the distressed person the time of day to tell their story and respond appropriately. Reading from a script is insulting. There is no independent evidence for the Service’s claimed 50% recovery rate, the likely true figure, Scott (2018), is a tip of the iceberg recovery rate. To raise these concerns in one of these workshops or indeed in the Service itself, will likely evoke the following response:
The sales pitch for Workshops is to:
- boost productivity using AI tools chatbots and digital solutions
- tailor therapy for neurodivergence with practical, trauma-informed approaches
- adapt to new key performance indicators
- determine suitability for low intensity CBT
- consider that all-comers should get low intensity CBT first.
- determine unsuitable referrals
- manage complexity
PWPs have, in necessary pursuit of CPD, entered a ‘brave new world’. But this is pure marketing, there is no evidence-base that these aspirations can be delivered in the real-world. Rather the PWPs are likely to continue to function in a parallel universe to that inhabited by most clients. Whilst attendees are encouraged to learn from each others ‘best practices’, dissent from NHS Talking Therapies modus operandi is unlikely to be tolerated, the ‘thought police’ will be in operation.
Overall there is as I said in a recent post a ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have a clue’ response from the gatekeepers to psychological treatment. There is a pressing need to review fundamental methodology.
Dr Mike Scott