The vast majority of mental health service users are happy with the NHS care they receive but problems remain in accessing talking therapies, a major survey has revealed, writes Simeon Brody.
The Healthcare Commission survey of 26,500 secondary mental health service users, who have been referred to outpatient wards or community teams, finds 77 per cent rated their care over the previous 12 months as excellent, very good or good.
But only two-fifths had received talking therapies, despite the fact that 86 per cent who had been offered them found them definitely helpful or helpful to some extent.
The survey comes in the week Labour peer Lord Layard called for 10,000 therapists to be trained to offer talking therapy on the NHS to all who need it.
Layard told the inaugural Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health lecture that therapy should be offered to people with depression and anxiety through a network of 250 national treatment centres, headed by psychologists.
He suggested the 10,000 new therapists should be led by clinical psychologists, supplemented by more narrowly trained therapists who could receive two years’ part-time training while working for the NHS.
The commission survey finds 93 per cent of respondents had taken medication for their mental health problems but one in five had not been involved in decisions about it. More than a third had not been told of any possible side effects.
About half of respondents had been given an out-of-hours crisis number and a similar number of those who needed help with accommodation or finding work had received it.
The survey finds 84 per cent of respondents had seen a psychiatrist in the past 12 months and 80 per cent felt they had treated them with respect and dignity.
Survey results from www.healthcarecommission.org.uk
