Talking therapies

Talking therapies can be very effective for treating mental health conditions. However they are not always easily available on the NHS and some people can wait years for treatment. Although the Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT) programme has improved the situation, far too many people are still not getting the treatment they need when they need it.

IAPT began as a three year national programme in 2007 which aimed to train 3,600 therapists to enable 900,000 more people suffering from depression and anxiety to access treatment, and reduce the number of people on sick pay and benefits by 25,000. From 2011, the programme's focus broadened and in the four years to 2015 evidence shows that this approach can save the NHS up to £272 million and the wider public sector will benefit by more than £700 million.

Talking therapies also have societal and economic benefits associated with people retaining their accommodation, employment, independent living and remainng a part of their family and local community.

Talking treatments services list

 We work in partnership with the Department of Health and leading academics in mental health to develop and produce 'Reach Out' educator and student manuals for the national IAPT training programme.

We are now the largest provider of talking therapy services in the country, after the NHS, with three services in Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City, ans services in Leicestershire, Stoke-on-Trent and Essex.

Each service is tailored to the needs and requirements of the local community and works in partnership with local statutory and third sector organisations to meet these needs.

We use a stepped care approach tailored to individual service needs. We believe that everyone should have the right level of treatment depending on their need. Our therapists are trained to help people to deal with negative feelings and the effect they have on mood and behaviour.

They can also help people to deal with difficult issues such as relationship problems, bereavement, concerns at work or physical illness. Where people have long term physical conditions, talking therapies can support them to manage their condition more effectively. Talking therapies can be used alongside medication prescribed by the doctor.

We use the following stepped care pathway, tailored to individual service needs.

Step 1 – Recognition of the problem with the help of the GP, Practice Nurse, Community Development Worker, friend or family member. Treated by watchful waiting and healthy living advice.

If this is not enough, and if the person is eligible, then we provide access to our talking treatments service.

Step 2 – Mild to moderate depression and anxiety treated by a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner using supported guided self help materials such as:

• computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• psycho-education groups
• medication concordance therapy
• brief psychological therapy
• well-being support
• help to access self-help initiatives
• depression recovery programme

Some people may require a little more help and this is often determined by how severe the problem is. If the problems require more help we allocate a High Intensity Therapist.

Step 3 – Moderate to moderately severe depression and anxiety treated by a High Intensity Therapist using more intensive talking treatments and social support.

We conduct formal reviews of patient progress at least every four weeks. During treatment patients are given support and tools to help them manage their problems. If, after completing sessions of treatment anyone experiences difficulties at a later date, they are welcome to access the service for continued support.

“Having someone listen to me and help me to analyse my thoughts and feelings was the first step to recovery." Read our talking treatments case study. 

Our talking therapies services include:

Good Thinking
Health in Mind
Healthy Minds Network
Let's Talk - Wellbeing

Out of 1,755 patients registered for using the stepped stage IAPT model in Stoke, 958 have been assessed as having a reduced PHQ-9 score that meets the criteria for Clinical Signifcant Change. This represents a recovery rate of 54.6%, compared with the national figure of 42%. Some patients have also made/ sustained sufficient recovery to become employed volunteers.

From June 2008 to July 2011, 13,301 patients were referred to our talking therapies service in Stoke and 369 of these were subsequently moved off receiving sick pay benefits.

In a satisfaction questionnaire in 2008, 93% responded as satisfied or very satisfied with the service, 100% felt invoved with important decisions about their core treatment and 91% felt satisfied with the type of treatment they received.

Our services are value for money with our Leicestershire service rated as being 'the most cost-effective IAPT service in the East Midlands' by a Public Health Consultant. This service is also in the National Top 5 for getting people back to work.