Phone-based CBT to help 3,000 depressed Scots every year
THREE thousand people with depression will be helped by telephone-based CBT as part of a unique scheme launched in Scotland.
The new service, being introduced by NHS 24 across five health boards in Scotland, has been advised by former BABCP President Chris Williams.
It is believed that the scheme 'NHS Living Life' is the first large scale NHS project in the UK to use phone contact and support for both high and low intensity CBT.
GPs in parts of Scotland will now be able to prescribe stepped-care, including phone-based CBT, for patients with mild to moderate levels of depression.
They will be able to refer non-suicidal patients to the two-year pilot service which will operate in the Borders, Lothian, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Shetland and the Western Isles.
Five hundred patients will receive high intensity CBT Therapist treatment by phone in weekly hour-long sessions.
Another 2,500 patients will receive self-help coaching, using books and the 'Living Life to the Full' website, backed up with regular phone support from low-intensity CBT therapists. The therapists will be based at a hi-tech call centre on the fifth floor of the Golden Jubilee
Hospital in Clydebank, Glasgow, where they will work from 1pm-9pm, Monday to Friday.
It's hope the £1million-plus scheme will help reduce the use of anti-depressant drugs by the NHS in Scotland.
Chris Williams, who with colleague Liz Rafferty, has advised on the setting up of the low-intensity service and the training of staff, said: "I am delighted that this new and very different service which has been launched will give patients a real choice about how they receive CBT.
"Phone-based CBT is particularly appropriate in Scotland because of our geography, which can make it difficult for everyone to access CBT. There are also issues of shame and phobias about travelling too, as well as the increasing cost of travel.
"This scheme will give people real choice and flexibility with added support from CBT practitioners. It is a real step forward."
Scotland's Public Health Minister Shona Robison added: "We will also be commissioning a full evaluation of this pilot service to determine whether this can be rolled out nationally in the future"
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