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This week
Tuesday 01 May 2007
Raj Persaud examines the radical proposals to introduce “talking therapies”, on a huge scale, into the NHS, to tackle problems of depression and anxiety, and reduce expenditure on incapacity benefits.
Programme details
COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY AND TALKING THERAPIES
Professor Lord Richard Layard directs the wellbeing programme at the London School of Economics. His study, The Depression Report – A New Deal for Depression and Anxiety Disorders – recommends training 10,000 new therapists and setting up a network of 250 specialist treatment centres around the country, to deliver cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, and other “talking therapies” so ensuring a proper psychological therapy service becomes available in every part of the country by 2013.
His proposals grew out of the latest statistics concerning mental illness in Britain highlighting that psychological problems have overtaken unemployment as our greatest social problem, with over one million people currently receiving incapacity benefits for mental illness.
Lord Layard explains how the plan will both tackle the problem of untreated depression and at the same time, make sound economic sense.
Raj Persaud visits the Newham Psychological Treatment Centre in East London (one of the national demonstration sites) and talks to patients and to Dr Ben Wright, Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Lead of the project, about the benefits of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as a treatment for depression and anxiety.
Raj Persaud discusses the issues surrounding the proposals with Dr David Veale, Consultant Psychiatrist at the Priory and Maudsley Hospitals and President of the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies; Dr Derek Summerfield, NHS Consultant Psychiatrist at South London & Maudsley NHS Trust and James Antrican, Chair of the UK Council for Psychotherapy.
Additional information
Additional information:
Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the Economics Department, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics
Dr David Veale, Consultant Psychiatrist at the Priory and Maudsley Hospitals and President of the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies
We Need To Talk – The Case for Psychological Therapy on the NHS
Report commissioned by five leading mental health charities to make the cause for greater access to psychological therapies on the NHS. It was written by Anna Bird and published by the Mental Health Foundation.
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