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Why I choked on my breakfast cereal this morning...
Posted Monday 19 April 2010
Get involved
•Ask your MP and parliamentary candidates how they are going to improve access to talking therapies
•Tell us about your experiences of talking therapies
Regular visitors to our news and blog pages will know that we’ve recently celebrated the manifesto hat-trick scored by the We Need to Talk campaign. All three major political parties have used their manifestos to pledge to improve the provision of psychological therapies. As Paul Farmer’s latest blog post argues, we should definitely see these commitments as a great step forward – we’ve achieved a consensus from all the main parties that access to psychological therapies needs to get better.
You could therefore forgive me for choking on my breakfast cereal this morning as I turned to page 13 of The Times and read this. According to this article, 40 mental health foundation trusts have been singled out for bigger cuts than any other area – the cuts equate to a reduction of an extra £50 million!
Although we all have to appreciate that funds are tight and savings will need to be made in the NHS, it is unjust that yet again mental health services are seen as an easy target when it should be thought of as anything but. As we know, one in four people experience mental distress throughout their lives and there is no reason why they should accept a reduced service any more than those needing physical health services.
These proposed cuts show more clearly than ever that a pledge alone is not enough – we need action. Although I remain encouraged by the parties’ commitments to improve access to psychological therapies, we must keep up the pressure to ensure that words turn into deeds. You can help us achieve this by getting involved in our election campaign. When candidates come to your door, ask a mental health question – just what would they do to improve access to psychological therapies in your area? And don’t forget to take our survey on your experiences. Only by working together can we consign treating mental health services as a “soft option” for cuts to the waste bucket of history.
Mariam Kemple is a Policy and Campaigns Officer at Mind
2 Comments
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This is just horrendous. The CMHT I am under, already has 12-18 months waiting list for therapy. I have needed therapy since November last year, and mid May will be assessed at the Residential Unit for Anxiety Disorders, and if they conclude that the treatment they offer is appropriate for me, I believe the wait is a further 8-12 months - although this has not been stated - I have just picked this up from their website and the wait for the assessment. If they conclude that the treatment they provide is not appropriate, then I will be on the 12-18 month waiting list at the CMHT. The one and only psychologist there said that she would try to phase my treatment, so as to provide me with something before a year's wait. I can't even think about waiting another year or more - I do not know how I will cope.
So how long with the wait be if there are more cutbacks?
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Pragmatic thought: cuts are bad but can they drive creative flexibility and change? Perhaps maximising use of budgets, giving support to new methods of talking and social therapy - to peer counselling supported by mental health workers and more training/joint working for family and childrens centres for parents with mental health needs. There is also an increase in services funded through GPs - if you can identify and encourage people in need and make these service work, reducing patent flow down through the 'safety nets' then CMHT funding shouldn't matter as much? Computerised and self-help CBT possible additions but used a bit patchily nationwide is my impression, without good processes for identifying who needs to see a therapist or CMHT and who will be able to use the materials. I was handed CBT-based materials through my health visitor, but I really needed a therapist/cmht/hospital-based psychotherapy. It can be difficult, as a mother of young children, to access main services often and regularly. My local children's centre has been an enourmous help, but the family centre a bit disappointing. My mental health is sometimes seen as extenuating circumstances on the side of the problem, rather than the actual central issue it is in my parenting abiliity. The key thing is listening to patients within the health and social care services and asking the right questions. User-led services need user-led theoretical frameworks not just attempts at soothing nominal-ism that merely raise expectations of ourselves and the service.
The message I'd like Mind to send out is that efficiency is by definiton about effectiveness. Optimal solutions to problems in technology are often simple and elegant - but you never get there by just hacking blindly away at something if it needs to be lighter. Mental health and wellbeing is a crucial part of a working society and getting it right in this sphere will underpin and inform every other development. Mental health is practically a part of a sustainability agenda. Psychology is fundamental and 'efficiency' must be the same process as assessing and providing efficiency.
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