Trying to connect – NHS online therapy not for everyone

Throughout the pandemic, some have discovered it troublesome to entry distant psychological well being help, with one in 4 saying it’s made them really feel worse

When Covid hit, the whole lot modified. For lots of us, this included our psychological well being. Whether or not you have been already present process remedy or discovered you wanted it throughout the pandemic, the same old face-to-face or group classes supplied by the NHS needed to cease.

Fortunately, different routes have been discovered within the type of distant counselling, usually supplied by way of video calls. For a lot of, this was a welcome and far wanted choice. But it surely wasn’t appropriate for everybody.

Surveying nearly 2,000 individuals, psychological well being charity Thoughts discovered that 35% of people that obtained distant help from the NHS discovered it troublesome to make use of, with 23% saying it truly made their psychological well being worse.

Different findings included:

• 63% would have most well-liked face-to-face help.
• 10% skilled technological points ‘usually’ or ‘all the time’.
• 34% have been apprehensive about confidentiality ‘usually’ or ‘all the time’.

At a look, this seems fairly worrying, however Thoughts say respondents did be aware some positives. 69% appreciated not having to journey to appointments, 47% have been happy to have extra flexibility when it got here to appointment instances and 40% highlighted that ready instances have been shorter.

Of their report, Trying to Connect, Thoughts are utilizing these insights to name on the Authorities to make sure these in want of psychological well being help are supplied a alternative relating to their therapies.

In response to the findings, Geoff Heyes, Head of Well being Coverage and Influencing at Thoughts stated there was a rise in demand for the charity’s providers throughout the pandemic. Describing distant psychological well being providers as a ‘lifeline for a lot of’, Geoff praises the NHS for what they’ve been in a position to do however notes the worrying statistics discovered of their survey.

“On the very least, individuals ought to anticipate their psychological well being to remain the identical, if not enhance.

“As restrictions proceed to ease, and we start to take care of the long-term impacts of the pandemic – bereavement, grief, redundancy, and insecure employment, it’s actually essential everybody is obtainable a spread of choices – together with face-to-face remedy – in order that they’ll decide essentially the most handy and acceptable choice. On-line remedy can’t be seen as a straightforward reply to fixing rising pressures on overstretched psychological well being providers. There isn’t any low cost repair.”

If you happen to’re presently receiving on-line counselling however are discovering it troublesome, remember to feed this again to your counsellor and ask if face-to-face counselling shall be attainable as soon as restrictions ease. For some, the thought of being on video is troublesome, so bear in mind you’ll be able to ask to have the video off or to have phone counselling as a substitute. You might additionally enquire about electronic mail counselling if this might really feel higher suited to you, this can depend upon what your counsellor can provide.

Right here, we’ve rounded up some useful articles to get essentially the most out of distant counselling:

If you happen to’re on the lookout for a substitute for NHS help and are in a position to take into account non-public counselling, Counselling Directory lists 1000’s of counsellors throughout the UK (together with these providing online counselling) who might be able to assist.