Depression
and anxiety affect millions of people in
the UK, yet few receive the psychological
therapies that could help with recovery.
Many with the courage to seek help have
to wait for many months for treatment or
have to pay for it privately.
The Government
has committed itself to turning this around
and to implementing NICE Guidelines for
depression and anxiety so that everyone
can have timely access to state-of-the-art
evidence-based therapies.
We congratulate
the Government on this welcome initiative
and call on the NHS to offer appropriate
psychological therapies free at the point
of delivery to all people who need them,
within six years. We call for people to
be given a choice of appropriate, evidence-based
therapies available close to home when they
need them. And we urge Government to invest
in the further development and evaluation
of psychological therapies to make the UK
a world leader in this field.
We commit
to working together to support the NHS to
build up its psychological therapy provision
and to ensure that the new services are
safe, effective and successful."
Signed:
Lord Victor Adebowale CBEChief ExecutiveTurning Point