Employment, absenteeism and area-level supply of psychological therapies
What are we trying to do?
We are estimating how much waiting times in England for NHS talking therapy treatments (formerly known as Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT)) have an effect on employment and absenteeism of individuals who can benefit from receiving the treatment.
Why is this important?
Common mental health problems affect up to 20% of the English population. The annual cost of mental health problems in England is largely due to lost productivity of individuals in the workforce.
The NHS has developed a response to the problem of common mental health disorders by significantly improving the availability of treatments, through launching and expanding the NHS Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression programme.
Investigating how the accessibility of mental healthcare services play a role in the relationship between mental health and employment is essential for understanding the benefits these services can provide to society.
How are we doing it?
By combining NHS Talking Therapies for Anxiety and Depression data with the UK Household Longitudinal Study, we are looking at regional variation in waiting times. This will help us to identify the effect of treatment waiting times on employment and absenteeism outcomes of individuals who could benefit from receiving therapy.
More information
Senior Programme Lead
Mike Spence