Why some clinical psychologists are ignoring official best practice guidelines

By Christian Jarrett In England there’s an independent health advisory body that provides guidelines to clinicians working in the NHS, to make sure that wherever patients are in the country, they receive the best possible evidence-backed care. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) was set up in 1999 and many of its guidelines pertain to mental health, and they often promote psychological approaches – for example, the guidelines for depression state that talking therapies should be the first-line of treatment for all but the most severely affected patients. While clinical and counselling psychologists have been involved in producing these guidelines, many of their colleagues – especially those in practice – are highly critical of them. Why? A series of interviews with 11 clinical psychologists, published in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, sheds new light on the scepticism and concern felt towards NICE guidelines, and why some psychologists are even deliberately ignoring them. Alex Court at the Salomons Centre for Applied Psychology interviewed 11 clinical psychologists “in routine practice in the NHS” for roughly an hour each. Court’s approach was open-ended and he began each interview by simply asking each psychologist to share their thoughts on the NICE guidelines. Court subsequently transcribed the interviews and together with his colleagues he set about looking for emerging themes in their answers. He kept a...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Mental health Qualitative Therapy Source Type: blogs