Access to talking therapies widens with new government scheme
A new multi-million pound strategy put in place by the government, aims to increase access to “talking therapies” in England and should cover up to 75% of the country by March, reports the BBC.
It has been estimated that six million working age adults suffer from depression or anxiety at any one time, resulting in 91 million working days lost every year. To combat this the “Improving Access to Psychological Therapies” (IAPT) programme aims to treat 900,000 extra people by 2010/11, with half of them moving to recovery and 25,000 fewer on sick pay and benefits. The scheme will basically pay for itself as more people return to work and stop needing to claim benefits.
There are currently 63 trusts, which have the programme in place, but this will leap to 115 by March 2010, the Department of Health said.
Care services minister Phil Hope said: “The talking therapy services that are already up and running have been very successful, with 73,000 people entering treatment and 1,500 more therapists being employed under the scheme”.