The Layard Agenda resurfaced in the news yesterday. Check out the Independent on Sunday front page for worrying claims about CBT being the antidote to the "Prozac nation", in an article heralding Hewittâ€*s proposed army of psychological surgeons. I plan to write a letter complaining about the poor standard of reporting and I hope others will too, but perhaps a coordinated one in the spirit of the one sent by members after the last round of news hoo-ha about Layard's at best simple minded, at worst cynical understanding of the evidence base could be made?
There is a little balanced comment from Oliver James, heavily edited I suspect and buried on page 13, but otherwise Layardâ€*s proposal and the foundations on which it is to be constructed are uncritically taken to be scientific/clinical truths. The contribution by Professor David Clark includes (follow the link below), â€*CBT would save the nation a lot of money because anxiety and depression make it difficult for people to workâ€| itâ€*s like the difference between normal surgery and keyhole surgeryâ€| What CBT does is takes their thoughts and tries to show people what is correct and what is a false belief.†So, the Institute of Psychiatry is poised, along with the Department of Health, to unleash psychological surgeons with the purpose of realigning the faulty cognitive mechanisms that 'keep' people on incapacity benefit.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article358011.ece
The page 13 article is under the link â€*Dependency Britainâ€|†and Clarkâ€*s article beneath that link.
This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment
may still contain software viruses, which could damage your computer system:
you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the
University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.
___________________________________
COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK.
To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML
For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator at [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
|