Number using IAPT services rises by one-fifth

There was a 21.5% increase in access to Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services in 2021-2022 over the previous year, NHS Digital figures show.

The figures are published in a report, Psychological Therapies: Annual Report on the use of IAPT services, England 2021-22, which analyses activity, waiting times and outcomes such as recovery in that time period. The IAPT programme is run by the NHS and offers therapeutic treatment for conditions such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and phobias. It uses therapies approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), guided self-help, eye movement desensitisation reprocessing, and interpersonal psychotherapy. Patients can be referred by their GP or self-refer.

According to the report, 1.24m referrals accessed IAPT services in 2021-2022, compared to 1.02 million in 2020-2021. The total number of referrals increased from 1.46 million to 1.81 million from the previous year 2021-2022, a rise of 24.5%.

The number of referrals completing a course of treatment increased by 4.6 percent, with 50.2 percent of referrals moving into recovery, down 1.2 percent from the previous year.

Paul Spencer, head of health, policy and campaigns at the mental health charity,  Mind, told Pulse: “There’s such a long way to go. We know timely and appropriate treatment can make all the difference for those of us with mental health problems, so we’re pleased that the NHS has rightly met some of its ambitious targets for people who need access to talking therapies. However, we’re still concerned that IAPT only meets the needs of 50% of the people who access it.”

IAPT services are seeing more complex presentations

According to a dashboard accompanying the report, the most commonly-used therapy was CBT, followed by guided self-help and counselling.

Other findings in the report include:

• 1% accessed IAPT services within 6 weeks, up 1.1 percentage points from 90.0% in 2020-21
• Patients received 7.9 sessions of treatment on average, up from 7.5 sessions in 2020-21
• 664,087 referrals completed course of treatment, up 4.6% from 634,649 in 2020-21

Spencer said: “IAPT services are seeing increased complexity in the people presenting to them, which is reflected in the increase in the number of average sessions. But with over a million people still waiting to access mental health support, the UK government must urgently and dramatically commit to improving mental health services both nationally and locally to make sure that everyone gets the right care, in the right place, at the right time.”