Group Therapy Trainers Add to Criticisms of NHS on Psychological Therapies
Echoing the conclusions of a report from several UK mental health charities, an organisation which trains group psychotherapists has welcomed the report’s call for greater access to psychological therapies in the NHS and says that the NHS is not making full use of practising group psychotherapists.
Following the publication of a report criticising the NHS for failing to act on clinical guidance for psychological therapies (“NHS Failing to Act on Clinical Guidance for Psychological Therapies, Says Report”), the Institute of Group Analysis, a training organisation for group psychotherapists in the analytical tradition, has issued the following comments.
The Institute of Group Analysis (IGA) welcomes the report’s call for greater access to psychological therapies on the NHS. The IGA says that the NHS is not making full use of practising group psychotherapists.
Yet psychotherapy groups can be more cost-effective than individual therapy and could have a significant impact on the reduction of NHS waiting lists. Group therapy directly addresses social ills such as isolation and social fragmentation, as well as workplace stress and relationship difficulties — problems known to contribute significantly to mental illness and distress.
The IGA states that government funding is needed to train more group psychotherapists in order to meet the public demand for talking therapies.
Examples of the effectiveness of group psychotherapy include:
- Research conducted within Leeds Community and Mental Health Services showed significant symptomatic improvement in patients with a range of moderate to severe psychiatric disorders, including personality disorder, depression and anxiety in response to a group therapeutic programme after only 12 weeks.
- Research conducted by the Home Office and others at HMP Grendon shows that reconviction rates are reduced by nearly a third for those who stay in group therapy for 18 months or more. Developing group psychotherapy in prisons can play an important part in reducing crime.
- A Stanford University study cited by the American Psychiatric Association showed that patients with breast cancer who received group psychotherapy lived on average 18 months longer than a control group at a comparable stage of the disease.
Rate this post?
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Related Posts
- CBT More Effective than Light Therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder
- Cognitive Therapy and Medication May Be Equally Effective for Major Depression
- CBT Offers More Specific Treatment of OCD, Says Danish Study
- Phone-Based Psychotherapy Eases Depression Long Term
- Online Games Explore How Groups of People Behave
Other articles by Dr Greg Mulhauser, Managing Editor
This article was last reviewed by on Tuesday, 31st October 2006. You can leave a response below.
The URL of this page is:
http://counsellingresource.com/features/2006/10/31/group-therapists-criticisms/
31st August 2007
This is a timely comment issued by the IGA in response to NHS Trusts not fulfilling their obligations to follow national guidelines regarding provision of psychotherapy. It seems that many group analysts work in the NHS and so are affected significantly by decisions to not provide psychotherapy. Maybe it is the same for practitioners of other forms of psychotherapy in the NHS too. I hope this begins a dialogue with other providers of psychotherapy training with maybe an end point of collectively lobbying the Dept. of Health to put pressure on NHS Trusts to fulfill their obligation to provide a range of psychotherapeutic treatments. Maybe the UKCP and BACP already have a strategy for this that I am unaware of.
Martin