Has IAPT become a bit like Frankenstein's monster?

Roscoe, Jason ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6088-1327 (2019) Has IAPT become a bit like Frankenstein's monster? CBT Today, 47 (1). pp. 16-17.

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Abstract

In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, the main character Victor (Frankenstein) sets out with good intentions, that is to regenerate dead tissue perhaps with the aim of improving the world rather than adding to its problems. Little did he realise at the time what he was creating. The monster took on a very different purpose to that which it’s creator intended. This may not be far off the current image of the IAPT project, an initiative developed by David Clark and Lord Layard with the economic argument of getting more people back to work and reducing the health burden of anxiety disorders and depression. The creation of Clark and Layard has unfortunately been transformed into something that does not always resemble what it should. The way that NHS trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups impose session limits that do not adhere to NICE guidelines makes one suspect that Aaron Beck might cringe if he heard about how rigid CBT has become in England. The gap between what the literature advises and what management allow seems to be widening leaving the patients as the ones who are being given sub-therapeutic, watered-down CBT. Not only this but IAPT also seems to be making its’ own workers ill with reports of compassion fatigue and burnout not uncommon.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	CBT Today
Publisher:	British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP)
Departments:	Institute of Health > Psychology and Psychological Therapies
Depositing User:	Jason Roscoe
Date Deposited:	10 Aug 2022 10:14
Last Modified:	13 Jan 2024 08:17
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/6535

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