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i think it's great statement,  i also think it assumes prior knowledge, not least linguistic, and is aimed at/or will reach a 'thin' slice of 'society'..... it is in this respect i always try and promote simple/plain (maybe popular, i prefer to think accessible) writing as for me it is an issue of access in a wide sense.  it is just my passion and so here i am on this list ...
 
 
on a very pedantic note, could we possibly lose the  'by people who have shorter training than clinical psychologists?' ... in order not to get caught up in something that is about defending profession of clinical psychology. you could have 10 years training and be chartered, double PhD'd or whatever, and still be part of the problem in how you work, and there are plenty of people with very little training who are part of the solution.... a bit pedantic ... sorry...
 
however, i agree with the statement, and would like my name on it and thank you for working on this!! 
 
it's good to have come on board!
 
julia
 
 
 
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:52:58 +0100
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The CBT announcement - who is going to tell them they've been had? Penultimate version?
To: [log in to unmask]


Dear All,
 
Below please find the revised penultimate version of the statement as promised. I have tried to incorporate all the suggestions made which are consistent with community critical psychology as I understand it. I apologise in advance for the points I have missed or garbled.
 
6 preliminary points
  1. I revised my draft statement in line with posts posted before 1900 before looking at Mark's and Julie's suggested versions. I amended it again to accommodate some of Mark's points which had not already been amended (many had). 
  2. I preferred to stick with the version which has been considered on this list rather than Julie's more popular version. It might seem just a matter of style but the version which has evolved below is a condensation of lots of quite carefully made points and I would personally prefer not to lose those.
  3. I think it has been important for this whole process to be open and I would prefer the final stages to done in public on the list too personally.
  4. I did not add in comments about 'self actualisation/realisation of human potential set in within the context of the communities and society we live in' or 'PSA 16 Agreement' because I see them both as critically problematic, think others might too and think we should stick with what has been generally agreed
  5. I have intended to append as signatories only and all the names of people who explicitly asked to have their names included. Some people may have thought that was implied. If your name is not there and you wish it to be, please make that clear ASAP.
  6. Apologies if the snappy 'title' is not snappy enough for you
David
 

For immediate release

Statement

 

 Changing politicians' minds about changing our minds

 

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and associated approaches are comprehensively problematic. Primary prevention is only way to substantially reduce socially, economically and materially caused distress. To be effective primary prevention must involve social rather than cognitive change. Reducing income inequality in our society would be one of the most effective ways to reduce psychological distress and ill health” says the UK Community Psychology Network.

 

Notes for Editors:

 

The government has recently announced £170m is to be made available by 2010 to increase the availability of low intensity, high volume, interventions, of which Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is currently the most favoured, to be delivered at primary care level to adults of working age by people who have shorter training than clinical psychologists.      

We welcome the recognition of widespread emotional distress and the will to spend public money on it but the scale of socially caused distress is so vast and growing so rapidly that it is impossible to 'treat it better' by training enough individuals to treat all individuals in distress one at a time with any therapeutic technique.

Even if we could train enough of such practitioners, there is little reason to think that the one to one talking treatments by professionals are more than marginally effective in the hands of some practitioners for some people, especially those in the most difficult living circumstances

Whilst classic community psychology research suggests that untrained volunteers are usually more effective than professionals in delivering help through talking and listening, the effectiveness CBT and kindred interventions in any hands is widely exaggerated and they are impossible to apply in many situations.

Moreover these treatments individualise social problems, draw attention away from the more important social economic and material causes of distress and position individual cognitive dysfunction as both the cause of the person's problem and the locus for intervention.

 It is bad enough to be depressed because you have been unemployed or to be anxious because you are subjected to regular domestic violence without being told your depression or anxiety are caused by your own dysfunctional cognitions. Blaming the victim like this imposes irrelevant therapeutic rituals on top of societal oppression

Besides, when those treated go back into the psychologically toxic contexts which had made them distressed in the first place, to which many or most will have no alternative, they are subjected to the same social causes of distress all over again and if those treated do not go back into those psychological toxic contexts, there will still be an epidemic of newly damaged people coming on stream due others being subjected to the ignored social causes of distress.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and associated approaches are comprehensively problematic and primary prevention is only way to substantially reduce socially, economically and materially caused distress. To be effective primary prevention must involve social rather than cognitive change. Contemporary research shows that reducing income inequality in our society would be one of the most effective ways to reduce psychological distress and ill health.

 

John Cromby

Bob Diamond

David Fryer

Annie Mitchell

Paul Moloney

Penny Priest

Mark Rapley

David Smail

 

on behalf of the UK Community Psychology Network



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