United Kingdom - Thérèse Coffey appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sept 2022

Non-Reply From Health Minister’s Aide On IAPT’s Gatekeeping
http://www.cbtwatch.com/non-reply-from-health-ministers-aide-on-iapts-gatekeeping/

 

Pretty much the new standard in medicine: "it can be of benefit to some". That's where the bar is, there is no need to do anything, just having something there is all that matters, it's a theater production but no one is watching so it can be said to be a smashing success no matter how awful it is. It's meant to be fully generic, "just try it", except no one actually cares whether it makes any difference.

I believe this bar was initially set by antidepressants. The idea that you don't have to know anything about what's happening, just give some psychoactive drugs to try and simply don't care about outcomes, just declare it's good enough because, well, "it can be of help to some" and surely you don't want to remove something helpful from being available. Ignore all negative outcomes, suppress any and all information that isn't fully supportive of the theater performance and how amazing it is.

The new paradigm, the biopsychosocial paradigm, is performative medicine. So much pretense that it could, and actually should, be delivered by actors, since it doesn't even matter, except it involves physicians anyway, which is basically like paying twice for something that doesn't even work.

 

Totally agree and it's tiring. I can't see much about what can be done. The rate of FND research seems to be going through the roof and is also used as a reason to suggest inconsistent research for guiding patient care.

 

Some informed suggestions that Javid could make a return, which presumably it’s permissible to say would be absolutely brilliant news.

 

Informed the suggestions definitely weren’t. It’s Steve Barclay.

Very difficult to tell much from his brief tenure at a time when government was pretty much suspended, but maybe lobbyists who interacted with his team in August will have some idea on how he felt about his previous predecessor’s ME agenda.

 

Not un-alloyed joy from inside the NHS. Barclay formerly at the Treasury with Sunak, concern budget reduction will be the focus.

 

I know I’ve suggested this before, but the kite to fly in front of hatchet men at a time of austerity should be the Curtailing Access to Psychological Therapies programme, which even has a memorable spad-friendly acronym.