It's good to talk

Accessing psychological therapies - such as counselling, psychotherapy and the popular Cognitive Behavioural Therapy - can enable people living with a variety of mental health conditions to better manage and cope with their symptoms, says Ruth Patrick

Research suggests that talking therapy is as effective as drugs in the short term for conditions as varied as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, whilst over time its results can be longer lasting and more effective than medication. Historically, there has been a chronic shortage of good psychological therapies available on the NHS, meaning that only a tiny proportion of those who could benefit from such treatments actually
received them.

In recognition of the massive potential in psychological therapies, and the large proportion of British people who could benefit from them, the Government introduced the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme. Launched in 2006, this programme promised £173 million extra funding for psychological therapies in order to enable 900,000 more people to access such services by 2010/11. With fine goals, and backed up by a real resource investment, this programme was rightly welcomed and lauded by service user groups and mental health charities alike.

Whilst it is too early to say how far the IAPT package has improved access to psychological therapies for the country at large, recent experiences of mine suggest that there are ongoing barriers and difficulties in getting the therapy one needs. As a mental health service user, who has previously benefited from psychological therapy, I recently approached my GP to request a referral for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Whilst he agreed that my diagnosis and previously positive reaction to the therapy merited a referral, this was unfortunately not in his hands and I had to be referred on to mental
health services.

Without boring you with all the details, I have been passed backwards and forwards between primary care, community mental health services and my GP and still seem no nearer to even getting on the waiting list for CBT. This pass-the-parcel themed party, at which I am a most miserable guest, has been going on since October and is certainly not doing my mental health any good.

This anecdotal evidence of my disempowering and infuriating experiences has relevance to disability politics more generally. It is suggestive of a continued lack of responsiveness to patients' own expertise, whilst also demonstrating how referral criteria and bureaucratic wranglings can operate as barriers to accessing appropriate services. Budgets are tight, and likely to get tighter, and services are all too willing to pass the buck if there is any possibility that a patient with expensive needs can be referred elsewhere. This reality must be challenged if health services are to better respond to the needs of those who know their own conditions best - patients themselves.