the Journal yesterday published my critique, ‘Ensuring IAPT Does What It Says On The Tin’ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjc.12264#.XzwEMhZvXuk.email of the recent IAPT ( Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) paper, by Wakefield et al (2020).
£4bn has been spent on IAPT without publicly funded independent audit. This is a scandal when the best-evidence is that only 10% of those using the service recover. There is no evidence that the Service makes a real world difference to clients’ lives, returning them to their old selves/no longer suffering from the disorder that they first presented with for a significant period. The claimed 50% recovery rate by the service is absurd. Not only has the now defunct Public Health England mishandled the pandemic, but it has had a matching performance on mental health. It is too early to judge whether the newly formed Health Protection Board will grasp the nettle of mental health. But I doubt that it will until there is open professional discussion that the present IAPT service is not fit for purpose. It will likely need the involvement of politicians to ensure radical reform of IAPT and that mental health is not again kicked into the long grass.
Dr Mike Scott