Improving access to psychological therapies: implications for the mental health workforce.

Despite the emergence of NICE guidelines regarding the effectiveness and appropriateness of psychological therapies for the majority of common mental health problems, access to these services is still dramatically underdeveloped and uneven. Estimates of untreated problems such as depression and anxiety in primary care signal the extent of these problems and the scale of investment in new services, if these needs are to be adequately met in the future. The Department of Health's and the Care Services Improvement Partnership's (CSIP) Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme sets out a framework and a series of co-ordinated actions, including two national demonstration sites, to begin to address these issues in England. This paper examines the origins and policy drivers that have given rise to the IAPT programme, outlines the progress to date and specifically assesses the implications for the mental health workforce of this programme. Issues addressed include the workforce profiles of existing services, career frameworks for psychological therapists, the capacity of training providers to train new and existing staff in psychological therapies and the challenges implicit in devising a workforce delivery plan to support the IAPT programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]