Wednesday 6 August 2008

While we are waiting

In my catching up on blog feeds after my holiday, I nearly missed a gem - which I am listening to as I type. The Women's Hour Health feature last week was on mental health, and specifically on the poor levels of provision of psychotherapy. It can be heard here (though I am not sure for how much longer) and probably through the Radio 4 website.

It focused on a joint report, called "While we are waiting", the summary of which can be found here. It focused on the huge discrepancy between waiting lists for psychotherapy and those for other (physical health) conditions.

This ties in with my previous struggles to get psychotherapy (the lists in my area were closed because they exceeded 6 months) and my current anxieties about getting help with the abuse issues which have surfaced only recently.

It's all very well for the government to say they are putting in more money to improve the situation - but why is there such a discrepancy between access to treatment for "mental" and "physical" conditions?

There's more about the report on Mind's site.

My own area is apparently to receive a share of the money for provision of more talking therapies. It's unclear as yet how that money will be allocated.

3 comments:

InEx said...

Hi Dis

I am critical of therapy - i have tried but found and hour a week caused more problems than it solved. Therapy should be in an acceptable format - I would prefer intensive therapy which addressed issues as they arose BUT I am enough of a realist to realise that never in a month of sundays will that happen - We do need to talk but someone needs the time and money to listen.

theMuddledMarketPlace said...

thank you so very much for these links

Disillusioned said...

Silvawingz, I know therapy is not for everyone - but it should be available to everyone who wants it, and for as long as it is needed as yous ay.

MMP - glad you found the links useful.