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Problems with social democracy

I\’ve mentioned before that I don\’t think that Britain is a naturally social democratic country: one reason being that we\’re pretty crap at actually implementing socially democratic policies.

Take for example Richard Layard\’s idea that nutters should, instead of being given pills, have cognitive therapy.

A flagship government strategy to train an army of therapists to get the nation off antidepressants and into work could be dramatically scaled back amid claims it is experiencing problems.

The government claims the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (Iapt) programme will treat 900,000 people and help about half of them to make a full recovery. It also aims to get 25,000 people suffering from anxiety and depression off sick pay and benefits by 2010/11.

But the Observer understands there are now concerns about whether these targets can be met. The Iapt Expert Reference Group – the body that oversees the implementation of the programme – was told last month that only 400 out of the 3,600 therapists needed to run it are fully trained.

It originally sounded like a pretty good idea (assuming that Layard was correct in the first place). But we\’re crap at actually doing it.

We\’re just not natural social democrats.

1 thought on “Problems with social democracy”

  1. Tim, people needing anti-depressants and CBT for anxiety or depression are not “nutters” Therapy is effective in helping people overcome anxiety & depression. Pills help with the symptoms only.

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