"My IAPT experience"

At the beginning of this year I was in a serious accident and asked for help from IAPT. By late February I was assessed and put on a waiting list for CBT, one to one, therapy.

I volunteered to go on a CBT course whilst I was on the waiting list as I hoped this would help whilst I was waiting for counselling. But unfortunately the course was just 1 session a week for 3 weeks, where a group of us were given hand outs and then those hand outs were read to us, which was not only completely un-engaging, I personally found it patronising, and some what a kin to being put on a job center course and treated like a child.

I was told that there 'might be a bit of a wait', before I would receive proper counselling, but at no point was I given any indication of how long that would actually be.

I waited and waited and waited......

5 months after the accident I was still not receiving any help or therapy.

I rang Hounslow IAPT a number of times in the hope that they could offer intermediate counselling, or at least suggest low cost counselling for people on low income, but they said that wasn't something they do.

All that was offered to me was a list of emergency contacts, which I never received. But quite frankly I was not interested in emergency contacts, as I didn't want to wait until the point of having a full mental breakdown before getting help. I wanted, or should I say, desperately needed a regular counselor to talk to, to AVOID getting to such a damaging point of break down.

I contacted a friend of mine that works closely with IAPT in a different area, who was shocked that I had still not received any therapy or help at all, and told me that IAPT was set up to make counselling more accessible. That the assessment should be within 6 weeks of referral (yes that part was fine), and that I should have then been seen within 3 weeks (very severe not suicidal) or at least 14 weeks (less severe). 

With the information my friend had given me I rang IAPT again. A few days prior I had been told that I was half way up the waiting list. After a 15 minute conversation, where I made it clear that I now knew the aims and deadlines of the IAPT service; Somewhat miraculously, I was offered the counselling I had been waiting for, for the following day!!

As much as I am thankful that I am finally getting the help and support I desperately needed, If I had not been informed of IAPT aims and deadlines by a friend that works in the field, so that I could then call them up and firmly make that clear and basically not take no for an answer, I would still be left waiting with no help or support at all.

I had the information, the confidence, mental ability and language skills to make that call. A lot of very vulnerable people will NOT. So in this circumstance it is the most vulnerable that are most likely to be let down.

That is not in any way acceptable.

That is why I am making this complaint.

Not only is this section of the IAPT service failing to make counselling more accessible, in cases of trauma in particular, the assessment, followed by months of waiting for help, is essentially acting in a way as to 'poke the wound' of the trauma, promise help, then walk away, leaving them on a waiting list, with no interim support what so ever.

This is not help and could actually transpire as further abuse and harm to vulnerable people that had the courage to ask for help in the first place.

With the known stigma around mental health issues, it is quite a brave, bold step for many to actually ask for help. So when they do and then are basically left with no support for months on end, this becomes incredibly mentally damaging, humiliating, disrespectful, crushing, and can result in severe downward spirals. To ask for help and be left helpless is incredibly dangerous to people with mental health issues.

I have been referred for counselling in the past by the NHS (prior to IAPT being put in place), and had sometimes waited 4 months or so to be seen, but I was always given interim support of someone to talk to whilst I wait.

If IAPT has been set up to make therapy MORE accessible than this, then clearly they have failed here.