Addressing the waiting list challenge in mental health services
While demand for treatment increases, mental health services are struggling to recruit and retain qualified staff. The inevitable outcome of this imbalance between supply and demand is longer waiting times for patients. In some cases even high-risk patients are waiting not just months, but years, to receive treatment1.
The stepped care model recommended by NICE and used throughout NHS mental health services was designed to increase efficiency. But with large volumes of referrals coming into services, moving people between steps leads to some of them waiting to start treatment. It would be unrealistic to assume that there will be a meaningful reduction in waiting lists in the short term. For example, there is no quick fix to solving the challenges of recruitment and retention throughout the NHS.
The whitepaper looks at live support models proposed in the Five Year Forward View as well as digital models, such as the SilverCloud® by Amwell® platform, which have been well tested in IAPT services.
Read on to learn about:
- Addressing the waiting list challenge
- Live support models
- Digital models
- The evidence for iCBT
- The SilverCloud® Self-Management Toolkit
- Stepped Care Digital Pathways