To want to work for cash to pay for treatment

Just for info, the counsellor you speak of wasn’t referring to none course based therapy. There’s a lot more to it and that’s a misleading statement

I have quoted your post where you say ‘none of these provide any type of therapy’. Now you admit that they do. I was correcting your misinformation.

Perhaps providing it to the very few people who qualify for it for a very limited amount of time?!

There are lots of fairly basic and very effective services that are very limited or not available on the NHS. Eg talking therapy. In this area, you can get 12 weeks of talking therapy and then you have to wait 3 months before you can apply again. Once you apply, there is a long wait. 12 sessions didn’t even touch the sides for me (domestic abuse, severe anxiety, chronic illness). I’ve been in therapy on and off for about 5
years, most of which I have had to pay for privately. It’s been incredibly helpful.

The NHS does not provide any support for my chronic illness. I’m too ill to work. I think it is very poor.

In my area you can only get very short bursts of CBT with long waits between which isn’t going to be the right treatment for many mental health situations but particular if the OP has experienced some sort of complex trauma.

Physio you can get but there is currently an 12month waiting list… which if it’s preventing you from doing your job or caring for yourself or your family it might mean you absolutely needed to do before that.

I haven't even attempted to use the NHS since I was 19 (that's almost 20 years). I don't know anyone able to access anything on it. When you die, they'll give you some morphine, but that's about it.

The fact is, you can't afford it. Get another job or move careers. I understand you feel proud working in the charity sector but you need to take care of yourself first.

You're rolling your eyes that your third sector workplace EAP won't provide long term therapy for a complicated issue? How on earth are they supposed to fund that?

Can you link to evidence?

@Shrinkhole oh indeed - nothing wrong at all. Was just noting that it is not only the NHS who won't fund unlimited treatment.

@gopherit some therapists do have spaces for low income. My therapist did offer some session at low cost so it might be worth looking into that. I’m happy to share his details with you. (He offers both in person and online sessions)

You could ask your MP to suggest it in parliament. It's true that many people simply cannot afford to pay for treatment that is now only available privately. Your solution may not work but some solution needs finding.

Limited capacity yes. Subjective referral patterns I don’t know what that means. There are service criteria that are applied and some people do miss out or have to wait a very long time but it’s not at a CTO only level otherwise what are the CMHT psychologists doing? They do offer treatment for PTSD, OCD and depression as well as bipolar and schizophrenia which are more medication dependent in any case.

You make a valid point but wouldn't you agree that access is limited by both subjective referral patterns of GPs and Consultants and limited capacity? I think a lot of people struggle to access what they need due to this.

And is there anything so wrong with that? They taught you tools to self manage. Having more sessions would not necessarily cure it.

This is the same with many therapies eg CBT and DBT give you tools to manage and you need to practice them and use them. You can still continue to make progress after therapy ends by doing that. The length of the course is not the time taken to be cured. More sessions will not necessarily cure a person it’s about learning and applying skills.

My (private) dentist told me that people don’t need to pay for so many hygienist appointments which are mainly a racket they need to lean the techniques and thoroughly clean their teeth themselves. It’s actually dangerous to think someone else will deep clean so I don’t have to try.

And if anyone is a therapist or a Dr who the NHS trained and now works in private practice you are part of the problem.

A lot of the time private health care won't continue to fund treatment indefinitely either. I have tendonitis my achilles tendon, it flares up sometimes as it is weak due to a rupture injury 15 years ago. I got 30 weeks of physio paid for by my private healthcare provider.

They have now cut me off as it is considered, by them, to be chronic. My only option would be to self fund single sessios, like you. I treat it myself with daily loading exercises and pilates.

I do have sympathy genuinely. I just have to take it from a societal perspective that if I can help a lot of people a little bit or a few people a lot I will help a lot of people a little bit and/ or at least I will try to make sure that I direct my resource to those who have greatest need and can least afford to pay. Thats why I work in the NHS exclusively shit as some people may believe it to be.

Where I am (Ireland) we can claim tax back on all health expenses, and there’s tax relief on private health insurance premiums as well.

I expect you will get your wish @gopherit when they actually formally dismantle the nhs and admit that they do actually believe that access to treatment should be based on wealth rather than needs. When that happens I expect that all spending on health insurance premiums and direct payments for appropriate health treatments will be tax-deductible. Yet even then there will be limits - a blanket zero-rate for spending on health is an open loophole for medical service providers to create entirely unnecessary expensive treatments solely to boost profits, so it will come down to why you aren't currently getting these treatments.

Under the current NHS system there are a lot of treatments that exist in countries that have privatised healthcare but which the NHS doesn't fund because they are scientifically unproven or the research shows that the incremental benefit that some patients report is too small to justify the cost. So if the reason you aren't getting the treatments is because NICE doesn't think they are good value for money, you may find they are also excluded from any tax-relief scheme introduced after the collapse of the NHS - but of course if they are recommended and NICE approved treatments but you aren't getting them because of staffing and capacity issues that would be different.

CMHTs and EIP teams ‘none of these provide any type of therapy’ WTAF are my psychology colleagues doing in that case I wonder. Misinformation.