The latest IAPT figures for August 2018 show 60.3% of clients attending attending less than 2 treatment sessions. Under the auspices of NHS England IAPT claims to offer NICE approved therapies for treating people with depression or anxiety but the typical recommended dosage of such therapies is 10 or more sessions! Casualties are strewn in ‘no-mans land’. The National Audit Office (NAO) rather than publish the results of its’ investigation has chosen to look the other way. Yesterday the NAO was very vocal on another Government Quango, Motability but mental disability appears not to be as deserving of critique as services for those with a physical disability. If 60% of physically disabled people were not enabled to get the vehicle they require, there would rightly be an outcry, yet the majority of IAPT referrals are expected to suffer in silence. The IAPT figures can accessed using the link below:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/crucmhktn3r88ud/IAPT%20Figures%20for%20August%202018.pdf?dl=0
Notwithstanding this IAPT in its’ pilot projects is expanding ‘IAPT care’ into the medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) field (see link below). Despite the concept of MUS being jettisoned from DSM-5 [American Psychiatric Association (2013)] – in a radical departure from its’ predecessor DSM IV it cautions that it cannot be assumed that just because no physical explanation is proferred the problem must be psychological. Nevertheless IAPT in its report on integrated services comes up with an ‘MUS recovery rate’!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f1taewasjrg4pyw/IAPT%20MUS%20Aug%202018.pdf?dl=0
Dr Mike scott