Haematological Cancer: Mental Health Services

(asked on 5th June 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the General Practice Forward View, what estimate he has made of the number of people with blood cancer that will have access to the 3,000 mental health therapists co-located in GP surgeries; and whether those therapists will be provided with specific training on blood cancer.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 12th June 2018

No such estimate has been made. Mental health therapists are not specifically trained on blood cancer as a condition, however cancer as a general condition forms part of the training which aims to enable experienced psychological well-being practitioners and high intensity therapists to deliver National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended treatments for people presenting to Improving Access to Psychological Therapies services with long-term physical conditions such as diabetes, cardiac disease, respiratory disease, and cancer with accompanying low mood and/or anxiety. The training focuses on high intensity and low intensity approaches to support people with mental health problems and physical long-term conditions or persistent and distressing medically unexplained symptoms.

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