Published: 22/09/2005, Volume II5, No. 5967 Page 12
Centres for 'talking therapies' should be established to help reduce the number of people with mental health problems who get little help with their conditions, a top economist has said.
Speaking at the inaugural Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health lecture, Lord Layard, emeritus professor of economics at the London School of Economics, said mental health was Britain's biggest social problem.
He said there was a huge unmet need for psychological or talking therapies, with most people with depressive or anxiety disorders lucky to receive more than anti depressants and a few minutes with their GP, despite evidence showing that talking therapies have a good success rate.
He said employing 10,000 more therapists over the next five years around the country would help address that and reduce the number of people on incapacity benefit.
There are currently more people with mental health problem receiving incapacity benefit than the entire number of people receiving unemployment benefit.
Lord Layard said there are many professions that could switch to training as therapists: 'They could be supplied by the statutory, voluntary or independent sector, with national protocols on ways of working and a framework to monitor success. Ideally they should be led by an experienced therapist. The costs would be considerable, but there would be savings to make elsewhere.' Earlier this year Lord Layard prepared a paper for Number 10 outlining the financial and social cost of untreated mental health problems.
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