Tag: Grenfell Fire

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Heading Towards the Iceberg – The Mental Health Service’s Response to The Grenfell Fire

‘Three quarters of those living closest to the Grenfell Tower are suffering from PTSD, with 40% suffering in buildings a little further away’ (BBC Radio 4 December 14th 2017). But these figures from Grenfell Health and Wellbeing are highly improbable, numerous studies of responses to natural disasters show the incidence of PTSD is 30-40% amongst direct victims of disaster  and 5-10% in the general population [ Galea et al (2005)]. The rampant overdiagnosis of PTSD opens up the prospect of swathes people enduring trauma focussed CBT (or EMDR) quite unnecessarily. The spectre of inappropriate help rivals the sight of the Tower.

This gross overdiagnosis has come about because counsellors have gone door to door, ‘if they thought it appropriate’ the questions on a PTSD screening questionnaire  were asked and using a cut off a diagnosis of PTSD was made. This method on its’ own is highly unreliable, a screen has to be followed by a reliable standardised diagnostic interview  to establish true prevalence.

The interviewed clinician claimed that their approach was a ‘first’, but actually it is reminiscent oF IAPT’s approach to assessment, resulting in a treatment, that by my independent assessment, has a 10% recovery rate -‘the tip of the iceberg respond’.

 

 

The mental health services are it seems like the like the Titanic heading towards the iceberg, hopefully unlike the crew they will heed warnings and take a new direction.

 Galea et al (2005) ‘The Epidemiology of PTSD After Disasters’ in Epidemiological Reviews

 

Dr Mike Scott

 

 

 

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Current Psychological Therapy Issues l

Grenfell Fire – A Cunning Plan?

Yesterday a Counsellor from the Children and Adolescents Mental Health Services (CAMHS) announced on the BBC News, that staff are going to go door to door asking whether the occupants want professional help. Is this really the best use of resources 6 months after the tragedy? The days news also contained an item on a parent averting the gaze of her children from the Grenfell Fire Tower Block as she took her children to school.

Without health staff having a clear understanding of what in effect constitutes the ‘bruising/ tissue damage’ from  the Tragedy as opposed to that which constitutes ‘disorder’ scarce resources are likely to be squandered. There is clearly a role for a preventative/ 1st Aid input, information about not blocking intrusions, the normality of a period of increased irritability, anxiety about rehousing but there also has to be a reliable assessment of dysfuntion so that an evidence based treatment can be highlighted.

Dr Mike Scott

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Voice of the Powerless

It has taken 28 years for the voice of the Hillsborough victims to be heard, Bishop’s Jones’s report published today is aptly titled ‘The Patronising Disposition of Unaccountable Power’.  In the aftermath I successfully treated a victim of the tragedy for PTSD, we have kept in touch and he was devastated a few years ago to find that his statement to the police had been doctored to make it appear that the police had been helpful, the facts were the total opposite. But the patronising attitude has been pervasive, my client had to see a Consultant Psychiatrist for the Insurers, the latter’s behaviour was so bad that my client came out of the Consulting Room sat down on the kerb outside and wept! I appeared in Court where this Psychiatrist referred to me as a ‘so called counsellor’, fortunately the Judge was not impressed by this! But unfortunately I regularly meet people with a personal injury claim who have been treated in a cold and upsetting manner by the Expert for the Defendant’s. I have little confidence that some of the claimant’s following the Grenfell Fire will not meet a similar experience. Assessments are often both inhuman and unreliable.

The failure to listen to the powerless unfortunately does not end with Hillsborough victims, it is repeated again in the accounts I’ve been given by clients going through the IAPT system.  It was repeated yet again today when I heard a Mental Health Nurse give anonymous testimony as ‘John’ on the Radio 4 You and Yours Programme. He was working for ATOS assessing entitlement to Personal Independence Payments he described a person with PTSD and Psychosis living in a night shelter. John wrote a report saying he needed full benefit the ‘back office/ auditor’ decided support was not needed just ‘prompting’ and he needed to alter his report.  He said that the Organisation discriminates against those without visible impairment.

From tragedy to tragedy, but hopefully people will not walk alone.

Dr Mike Scott

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Current Psychological Therapy Issues

Grenfell Tower Fire and IAPT Trauma Services

In The Wake of the Grenfell Tower Fire, Mrs May Has Announced Additional Monies for Mental Health Services – BBC News 10.0pm June 18th 2017.

But the devil will be in the detail, what ‘treatment’ will be funded for which victim?, delivered by whom? when?.  The UK track record on treating trauma victims is not good. I independently reviewed 65 cases of trauma victims who had gone through the Government funded Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Service [Scott (2017] and found overall a 15% recovery rate, one half the sample had PTSD and again the recovery rate was 15%. There was no difference in recovery rates between those treated before and those treated after a personal injury.    But the difficulties are not confined to IAPT, recently I saw a victim of the 1989 Hillsborough Football Disaster who had since shortly afterwards been attending a weekly support group for victims, run by a Charity, though grateful for its ministrations, he had never been offered evidence based psychological treatment and continued to suffer from severe PTSD, with his marriage in tatters.

The breathtaking hospitality shown to victims of the Fire by the general public, has contrasted sharply with the acknowledged dilatoriness of the Governmental response. If that hospitality is reflected in the behaviour of friends and family towards the victim this will be an enormous benefit as perceived social support is the biggest single predictor of recovery from PTSD [ see Scott (2013)] and as a consequence I have advocated inclusion of partners in treatment if appropriate. Partners and clients can both benefit from my self-help book Moving on After Trauma [Scott (2008)].

One of the biggest roadblocks to delivering Trauma Focussed CBT (TFCBT), is that therapists or clients curtail treatment because the latter cannot face repeatedly going over the details of the trauma. Yet TFCBT is effective if clients can stomach it. I have suggested that a way around this is to teach coping skills for managing the memories, even if this proves insufficient to manage the intrusions, it can become a stepping stone towards a preparedness to engage in TCBT [Scott (2013)]. In a paper currently under review with Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, titled ‘PTSD Re-imagined’, I have presented a new reconceptualization of PTSD that is user friendly and goes beyond existing forms of treatment.

Dr Mike Scott

References

Scott, M.J (2017) Towards a Mental Health System that Works London: Routledge

Scott, M.J (2013) CBT for Common Trauma Responses London: Sage Publications

Scott, M.J (2008) Moving On After Trauma London: Routledge