IAPT dominates mental health provision, so you have to be free of its’ clutches to voice dissent. The Guardian reported on a dissident (see link below) ” Before Bake Off, Kim-Joy was a psychological wellbeing practitioner, having done a master’s in psychology………but I’m at a point where the clinical side of mental health isn’t for me. You do a questionnaire with each person when they come in. So they tell you how many times that week they’ve felt low, which is a really weird question. It’s not real. Professionals need it for their data, to see who’s recovering. A lot of people just make up their answers, because they want to sound like they’re feeling better.”
We need an ever rising chorus of dissidents for clients not to continue to suffer in silence. There has to be a commitment to honesty and not fake news e.g ‘51% recovery’. The silence over the true functioning of IAPT clients is eerily reminiscent of the silence over ‘shell shock’ in the two world wars.
Dr Mike Scott