Health Minister Andrew Lansley has announced that the Government will pump £70 million into therapies designed to treat common mental health problems in the midsts of a cull on public spending.

This funding will ensure that psychological services can continue to run for this year and that new services can also be established.

‘Our Coalition Programme set out our intention to ensure greater access to talking therapies. We want to offer long-term solutions to people with mental health problems and psychological therapies to do that.

Working through issues gives people the skills to manage them and deal with them more effectively if they recur. We will broaden the geographical coverage of services and also the range of therapies available. This will help us to deliver more choice and give people better access to the right psychological support,' Andrew Lansley minster of state for health said.

While moves to increase the access to talking therapies has been welcome, the absence of any attempt to remove the barriers  faced by people from ethnic minority groups to accessing this kind of mental health care remains a major concern.

Alternative to high doses of ant psychotics needed

Experts working within the community point out that ethnic minorities and people from Britain's African Caribbean communities continue to be excluded from accessing this kind of care despite the need for alternatives to high levels of medication routinely given to people from this group.

Back in 2008 the Department of Health first announced the launched in The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT ) scheme backed by a commitment of £170m of cash. The scheme   focused on increasing access to talking treatment Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) as part of the  Governments commitment to increase access to mental health services.

The IAPT was introduced along with the aim of expanding the psychological therapies workforce by training an extra 3,600 psychological therapists.

At the time of the launch community activists warned against black patients being sidelined from accessing psychological therapies. Back in 2008 government data also showed that detention rates under the Mental Health Act for black Britons was continuing to rise, even though there was no substantive evidence to show that there is higher rate of mental illness among this group.

The concern about the lack of involvement from black agencies within this new drive led to the midlands based agency ACCI writing to the ‘We need to talk', coalition, which had been lobbying government for the introduction of talking therapies on the NHS. Although calls were made for the inclusion for black agencies who work with service users in the community to be included within this coalition,  to date there have been no moves to include this or any other black led group.

David Bennett Report highlights over medication 

This IAPT scheme was launched three years into the five year Delivering Race Equality Action plan, introduced to improved the disparity in care of ethnic minorities.

This race equality strategy  came out of the Government's in response to the David Bennett Inquiry report  into the tragic death of an African Caribbean patient while in psychiatric care.

David Bennett's pathology report showed that he had three and a half times the BNF (British National Formulary) limits of medication within his blood stream when he died. The over medication of black patients continues to remains a concern.

 One of the major commitments of the multi million pound DRE programme was to ensure access to talking therapies for black patients as an alternative to the medical model.

With the current scheme targeted at people diagnosed with depression or anxiety equality groups have also pointed to the routine diagnosis of schizophrenia among black patients acts as another barrier to this group accessing psychological treatment.

Practitioners in this field also point to the need for ensuring the cultural competency of those responsible for delivering this service.

Culturally appropriate therapies needed

‘If the psychological therapies are not culturally friendly then it is hard to see how  they will be of any help. What people are failing to understand is that support that is offered to date is based norms and cultural values that do not apply to many black service users who are currently in the system.

I agree that for some people certain psychological therapies are good, but I have seen a book list  that goes with some of these treatments that is not culturally friendly.

I also have reservations on electronic CBT as it is a dangerous thing to get anyone to look at deep psychological issues without support.

There is a need to spend some of that £70million on looking at the thirty years worth of resources on ethnicity and mental health so that they can put together a programme that will serve the needs of our communities,' Rachel Barclay, director of The Two Way Street, community health service told Black Mental Health UK,'

Experts point the fact that despite the pressing need black people are not even getting onto the waiting lists for psychological therapies because they are routinely diagnosed as schizophrenic or psychotic.  BMH UK have learnt that psychiatrists view people with such diagnoses as not suitable for talking therapies or  those offering such therapy do not accept people with such diagnoses.

Funding for this programme in future years will be determined as part of the Government's spending review process.