PSYCHOLOGISTS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
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 New Savoy Conference Statement 21.3.18


Today (21.3.18) members of Psychologists for Social Change joined a demonstration with Alliance for Counselling and Psychotherapy and other mental health activists including Mental Health Resistance Network outside the New Savoy Conference on Psychological Therapies in the NHS. This is the annual conference for organisations involved in delivering IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies). 
 
We need to hold politicians and NHS leaders to account on issues the conference claims to address like "the impact of austerity on mental health" and "addressing issues of morale capacity and funding" in the psychological therapies workforce. These are important issues that the conference says will be debated. We are worried that the wide range of professional bodies attending the conference may not prioritise the interests of the people who use services and low paid IAPT therapists working within a culture of targets. 
 
Is it likely that these debates will lead to real change given current government priorities? How will our "healthcare leaders exert real pressure" on this government? We hope they will, but given the lack of policy change in response to UN condemnation of the impact of the Department for Work and Pensions benefit cuts on disabled people, and recent findings on IAPT recovery rates and the relationship to levels of deprivation, this seems unlikely. We are not sure the approach of professional bodies attending and implicitly endorsing what look set to be inadequate solutions that miss the social determinants of distress will help.
 
We call on professional bodies and healthcare leaders to take seriously their responsibilities to service users and therapists, and mount some real resistance to damaging government policies that leave open individualised explanations of distress and ignore the psychological impact of austerity.
 
See the Free Psychotherapy Network website for more information on their criticisms of the conference: https://freepsychotherapynetwork.com/2018/02/25/demo-at-new-savoy-conference-21st-march-2018/

Jay Watt's chapter 'IAPT and the Ideal Image' is also useful background reading:
​http://www.academia.edu/21585145/IAPT_and_the_Ideal_Image

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  • Home
  • About
  • Groups
    • England >
      • North East >
        • Sheffield
        • Leeds
      • North West >
        • North East
        • A North West Just Recovery following coronavirus
        • Manchester- PSPO letter
      • Midlands >
        • Midlands
        • Leicester
      • South East >
        • East Anglia
        • Hertfordshire
        • London
        • Oxford
        • Suffolk
        • Surrey
        • Sussex
      • South West >
        • Bristol and Bath
        • South West
    • Ireland
    • Northern Ireland
    • Jersey
    • Scotland
    • Wales - Cymru >
      • Elections 2021
      • Building Resilience and Community Wellbeing
      • Social and Political Causes of Poor Mental Health
      • Responding to Austerity and Mental Health in Wales - Accessible Document
    • Start a New Group
  • Blog
  • Position statements
    • UK >
      • Response to Panorama: Undercover Hospital Abuse Scandal
      • Esther McVey: PSC and RITB response
    • Cymru / Wales >
      • Connecting the Dots Report
      • Chemical Imbalance Myth
      • Review of use of dx PD
      • UK Inhumane Removal Plans
      • WG LGBT+actionplan
      • Ty Coryton
      • Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities: The Report
      • ECT Review
      • Black Lives Matter
      • COVID 19 and Internet Access
      • Save the T4CYP Programme
      • Support the Mind over matter Report
      • UN Report on Extreme Poverty in the UK Letter
    • England >
      • Psychologists for Social Change support the moratorium on school exclusions in England
      • Racism is Not Entertainment
      • Letter to Jeremy Hunt
      • UK Government Green Paper, Transforming Children and Young People’s Mental Health Provision
      • Exam Crisis
    • Ireland >
      • End Direct Provision
    • Northern Ireland
    • Scotland
  • Campaigns
    • Structural racism demands a structural response
    • Embed anti-racism in the NHS
    • COVID-19 >
      • Mutual Aid
      • COVID and mental health
    • PSC Manifesto 2019
    • Visioning a new education system
    • New Savoy Conference Statement
    • Formulating Policy >
      • Origins of Happiness? PSC response
      • Basic Income: Psychological Impact Assessment
    • Preaching to the Non-Converted
    • Psychologists Against Austerity >
      • Austerity Briefing Paper
      • Everyday Austerity
    • Private Health Watch
  • Join our mailing list