I have just put the following post on the rarely used BABCP Discussion Forum, CBT Cafe, the only sanctioned vehicle for such expression:
‘BABCP has effectively gagged discussion of IAPT by refusing correspondence about Jason’s article (and David Clark’s response) in CBT Today. The suggestion that the CBT Cafe is the appropriate place for the discussion is ludicrous, as the most responded to thread there is the ‘Cafe with little Discussion’, with only two responses to Jason’s article and 30 views in the week since publication. By contrast CBT Today is seen by the 10,000 membership! If you wanted to sideline discussion this was the perfect way to do it. It would have been bad enough if this was an editorial decision (but editorial freedom is important) but when it was decided by the President this raises serious issues. Interestingly the two responses to Jason’s article were critical of IAPT, but criticisms are almost only ever made anonymously, such are the high levels of fear amongst clinicians. BABCP has studiously failed to grasp the nettle about IAPT, fear pervades the Cafe, people are ducking under the table’.
Dr Mike Scott
2 replies on “The Gagging of Discussion About IAPT Following ‘Has IAPT Become A Bit Like Frankenstein’s Monster?’”
I personally have given up trying to discuss issues on the CBT cafe . Back in the day of the JISC mail list there used to be frequent hotly debated and sometimes supportive threads. Now all there appears to be is the sound of tumble weed and indifference .Also I would suggest it’s not just IAPT that has become like Frankenstein’s monster but CBT itself .
The extent of gagging these days is truly worrying. But I see that a comment critical of IAPT did get posted on David Clark’s ‘IAPT at 10’ blog – https://www.england.nhs.uk/blog/iapt-at-10-achievements-and-challenges/ . Perhaps what matters more these days is whether social media takes up issues and runs with them?