NHS Cumbria has successfully secured £2million in funding to continue its expansion of psychological therapies for mild to moderate mental health problems.
The money has been awarded by the North West's Strategic Health Authority (SHA) to NHS Cumbria as part of a government initiative called 'Improving Access To Psychological Therapies' which has been established to help people with anxiety disorders an
d depression to access state-of-the-art talking therapies that have proven effective in research trials.
It follows a bid to the SHA by NHS Cumbria in collaboration with Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. The money has been awarded to recognise the success of the current service which has already doubled in size within the last 18 months and is now helping 8,500 people each year.
Approximately £2million plus an additional £500,000 from NHS Cumbria will go towards the service to improve people's access to psychological therapies across the county.
The new service which in Cumbria will be called 'First Step' will help train and employ 49 new clinicians working within GP practices, health centres and community hospitals across Cumbria. It will bring evidence-based psychological treatments 'Closer to Home' and is planned to begin late 2009.
Once it has started, 'First Step' will have an even greater capacity to provide effective treatments for mild to moderate mental health problems. The new service will also allow individuals to refer themselves rather than needing to be referred by their GP and would also provide additional ways of getting help at the weekends and evenings.
'Improving Access To Psychological Therapies' (IAPT) was developed by the government in 2005, and following trials has been implemented in phases since 2007. This is the second year of a six-year roll out program which means that Cumbria is at the forefront of developing such services.
A study into most current community mental health care in England found that it focuses on patients suffering from psychosis. Psychosis affects around 1 per cent of the country's population at any one time.
In comparison 15 per cent of England's population suffer from anxiety and depression which can be treated by psychological therapies.
