大象传媒

COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY AND TALKING THERAPIES
Professor Lord Richard Layard directs the wellbeing programme at the London School of Economics. His study, The Depression Report 鈥� A New Deal for Depression and Anxiety Disorders 鈥� recommends training 10,000 new therapists and setting up a network of 250 specialist treatment centres around the country, to deliver cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, and other 鈥渢alking therapies鈥� so ensuring a proper psychological therapy service becomes available in every part of the country by 2013.

His proposals grew out of the latest statistics concerning mental illness in Britain highlighting that psychological problems have overtaken unemployment as our greatest social problem, with over one million people currently receiving incapacity benefits for mental illness.

Lord Layard explains how the plan will both tackle the problem of untreated depression and at the same time, make sound economic sense.

Raj Persaud visits the Newham Psychological Treatment Centre in East London (one of the national demonstration sites) and talks to patients and to Dr Ben Wright, Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Lead of the project, about the benefits of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as a treatment for depression and anxiety.

Raj Persaud discusses the issues surrounding the proposals with Dr David Veale, Consultant Psychiatrist at the Priory and Maudsley Hospitals and President of the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies; Dr Derek Summerfield, NHS Consultant Psychiatrist at South London & Maudsley NHS Trust and James Antrican, Chair of the UK Council for Psychotherapy.