Implementing NICE guidelines for the psychological treatment of depression and anxiety disorders: The IAPT experience

Abstract

The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme is a large-scale initiative that aims to greatly increase the availability of NICE recommended psychological treatment for depression and anxiety disorders within the National Health Service in England. This article describes the background to the programme, the arguments on which it is based, the therapist training scheme, the clinical service model, and a summary of progress to date. At mid-point in a national roll-out of the programme progress is generally in line with expectation, and a large number of people who would not otherwise have had the opportunity to receive evidence-based psychological treatment have accessed, and benefited from, the new IAPT services. Planned future developments and challenges for the programme are briefly described.

Declaration of interest: The views expressed by the author are personal and are not necessarily the same those of the Department of Health. D.M.C. acknowledges the support of the Wellcome Trust (Grant 069777) and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Kings College London, UK. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the paper.