Improving Access to Psychological Therapies

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) is a United Kingdom initiative to improve access to psychological therapies. It was a result of the economic evaluations by Professor Lord Richard Layard and a Labour Party Election policy . The aim of the project is to increase the provision of evidence based treatments for anxiety and depression by primary care organisations. This includes workforce planning to adequately train the mental health professionals required .

Initial indications show that the project has resulted in good clinical outcomes and is cited as an good example of the use of stepped-care to disseminate cognitive behavior therapy. It is predicted that by 2011, approximately 900 000 people will have received treatment, 3600 new staff will have been trained, possibly removing 25 000 people from sick pay and sickness benefits.

There has been some criticism for the sole use of cognitive behaviorial therapy as the only funded therapy.