North Manchester CCG commissioned additional access to IAPT services in North Manchester. Feedback from GPs and other health and social care professionals suggested that we were not meeting the needs of our population, with patients not only struggling to access services, but the need for a different more supportive and holistic approach treating mental illness. 
With these new pathways it is hoped to support more people to both access, but also recover from periods of anxiety, depression and to support them in not only their mental health recovery, but their improvement in physical health.
Improving Access to Psychological Therapies in North Manchester
IAPT services provide evidence based treatments for people with anxiety and depression (implementing NICE guidelines).
In 2017/2018, the priorities for the North Manchester IAPT expansion are:
1. Seeing more people access IAPT
2. To achieve National IAPT recovery standards
3. To see the majority of clients within 6 weeks of referral
4. Focusing on people with long term conditions
5. Adults aged 65 and above years old
6. Individuals from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups
IAPT services are characterised by three things:
1. Evidenced based psychological therapies: with the therapy delivered by fully trained and accredited practitioners, matched to the mental health problem and its intensity and duration designed to optimize outcomes.
2. Routine outcome monitoring: so that the person having therapy and the clinician offering it have up-to-date information on an individual’s progress. This supports the development of a positive and shared approach to the goals of therapy and as this data is anonymized and published this promotes transparency in service performance encouraging improvement.
3. Regular and outcomes focused supervision so practitioners are supported to continuously improve and deliver high quality care.
Patients registered with a GP in North Manchester can access the following services free of charge:
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• Counselling (including couples)
• Psychology and Psychotherapy
• eTherapy
• Workshops (Mindfulness, stress management, anger and bereavement)
• EMDR
• IPT
• DIT
• Guided Self Help
Self-referrals and health professional referrals are accepted by telephone 0161 226 3871 or email: [email protected]
Patients will receive an initial appointment within two weeks of the initial referral. A referral form can be found here: www.selfhelpservices.org.uk/referral-decision/
For further information, visit: www.selfhelpservices.org.uk and click to read about Clinical Service Transformation in Manchester