Cognitive Therapy & Community MH Nurses - anyone for tennis?

Last week there was quite an announcement about psychological therapies - specifically cognitive behavioural therapy, with a £170 million boost to help treat the millions of people affected by anxiety and depression. Stuck with their condition many are also stuck on waiting lists.

On the media the inevitable debate followed about research, the evidence base and the possibility that perhaps nurses could undertake some of this work. You guessed it - the 'but' followed in the form of 'training'. True, training will be needed, as the conveyor belt that is the workforce takes on-board the new kids in town and seeks to squeeze the best out of its more senior clinicians. With mention of training though someone had better watch that £170 million, to ensure it really does deliver quality therapy with the required supervision. There's also an invitation here for the various schools of therapy to take up arms - and this could be a further distraction.

A stock-take of EXISTING skills would be in order. Many people have already been trained in CBT as part of a skills set to deliver psychosocial intervention. Personnel information systems that are breathing (alive!) are critical, since there are many nurses (one hand raised here) and other disciplines who have the skills to maximise the effectiveness of that investment. Polish those rusty skills and there's a regular Genie there. So where are they?

Well many are playing tennis and it sure is not pretty...

If you listen carefully you can hear the grunts; the thud-after-thud as the players seek the sweet-spot. Any applause was lost a long time ago. You see, primary and secondary care are locked in a tie-break. Primary care refer; secondary care continue to hone their return of service, trying to spot the attempted ace down the centre. Screening tools are perfected, referral thresholds revised - the net gets dizzy; meanwhile, who is doing the therapy, the carer support, the public mental health education? Of course, this word therapy also comes with economic and status baggage.

You have to feel sorry for both these players and their coaches, now they can't just run to return the ball, the rules say that between shots they have to include a gymnastic element too.

Wimbledon 2008 should be fascinating: there's bound to be a break soon - I bet your demographic dollar$

Image source http://www.tennisserver.com/set/set_03_09.html