Technology could prevent mental health waiting times

Technology could prevent mental health waiting times The NHS has to provide face-to-face therapy to 95% of patients within 18 weeks, but we can do better than this

Everyone working in mental health will welcome the new NHS waiting times for talking therapies. They will require the NHS to provide face-to-face therapy to 75% of patients within six weeks and 95% of patients within 18 weeks. I embrace these targets because they make an important statement about mental health and its equal status with physical health.

But underlying any waiting times target approach is the assumption that expanding access is difficult and expensive. We need to be a lot more ambitious about treating people with common mental illnesses. We need to look not at the cost of treating people, but the cost of not treating them. We also need to be aware that the new targets are not far off what the NHS has been doing already. According to the NHS, 61% of the patients that entered treatment in 2013-14 had a first appointment within 28 days of referral and 89% had one within 90 days. Continue reading... The Guardian