NHS made million referrals to talking therapies

MORE THAN one million referrals to talking therapies for depression and anxiety were made last year, NHS data shows.

Of the 1.4m new referrals for talking therapies as part of NHS England’s Increasing Access to Talking Therapies (IAPT) programme, 965,000 people began treatment, a 32,000 rise on patient numbers from the year before.

Performance statistics for 2016/17 show that waiting times are decreasing and recovery rates improving, with 88 per cent of people waiting less than 18 weeks for treatment, and nearly nine in ten patients less than six weeks.

As well as recovery rates improving to an average of 49 per cent over the course of the year, 65 per cent of patients showed “reliable improvement” from treatment, NHS England said.

IAPT aims to offer talking therapies to people with common conditions including depression and anxiety.

It is said that expanding access to this type of early intervention care will mean people’s conditions are spotted and treated sooner, reducing the need for more intensive, and higher-cost treatments.

Claire Murdoch, NHS England’s national director for mental health, said: “Ever-increasing numbers of people are getting treated by the NHS and recovering from mental ill health.

“Talking therapists in the NHS helped nearly one million people last year, and not only are more patients getting help more quickly, but their chances of recovering, thanks to NHS support, are improving significantly.

“However, we are not complacent.

“Mental health services have for too long been neglected, so even with significant extra funding of more than £1bn over five years, raising standards of care to a consistently high level will take further years of hard work and continued investment.”

It follows news that around one in ten 16 to 17-year-old girls in England were referred to specialist mental health services last year. Some 69,000 girls received an open referral to NHS-funded secondary mental health and learning disabilities services in 2016 – 11.4 per cent out of a total 2.6m people.