NHS Digital Data Release Register - reformatted

King's College London

Opt outs honoured: Y

Basis: Section 251 approval is in place for the flow of identifiable data

Format: Identifiable Non Sensitive

How often: Ongoing

When: unknown — 11/2016

HSCIC Id: DARS-NIC-309328-R9V1C-v1.2

Data: MRIS - List Cleaning Report

Data: Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Data Set

Output: KCL plan to publish the results of this analysis in a peer-reviewed journal and disseminate to the relevant health service providers, including the HSCIC. The health services for which it will be most applicable will be Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies services in England. The paper will be published on KCL’s website, subject to any copyright / publishing restrictions by the journal.

KCL plan to present the findings at a conference relevant to the health professionals working in these healthcare services, e.g. the annual conference for the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies. It is not possible to specify an exact target date as this depends on the time taken to prepare the dataset, analyse the complex data and write up for publication.

In all cases, all outputs will be at aggregated level and small numbers will be suppressed in line with NHS Digital guidelines.

Activities: The data will be used to investigate whether, compared to heterosexual individuals, do LGB people show similar referral levels / pathways, presenting symptoms, treatment access, patient experience and treatment outcomes. KCL aim to investigate whether there is variation depending on the intersection between sexual orientation and other characteristics (e.g. gender, ethnicity or disability, employment status, religion? A further question concerns the disclosure of sexual orientation. This is only recently being collected in IAPT services and KCL will investigate whether willingness to disclose sexual orientation varies according to factors such as age, ethnicity, gender, religion and so on.

Objective: The DoH (2011) strategy document “No Health Without Mental Health” stated that “A priority action for securing improved outcomes is to achieve routine local monitoring of access to services, experience and outcome by sexual orientation”. Assessing referral, access to assessment / treatment, experience and outcomes will help to determine whether service provision is equitable and appropriate for LGB patients. Identifying specific areas of need will highlight where changes are required.

This project, conducted by King’s College London (KCL), aims to evaluate treatment access and experience for lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals with common mental health problems in relation to Improving Access to Psychological Interventions (IAPT) services in England. The objective is to establish whether there is equitable access and experience for this minority population, and if not, to identify areas are important targets for improvement.

Benefits: Sexual minority individuals suffer excess rates of mental health problems such as anxiety and depression and are more likely to self-harm or attempt suicide (e.g. Chakraborty et al., 2011; Elliott et al., 2014; King et al., 2008). The NHS Constitution for England states that the NHS "has a wider social duty to promote equality through the services it provides and to pay particular attention to groups or sections of society where improvements in health… are not keeping pace with the rest of the population". The DoH (2011) report “No Health Without Mental Health” identified monitoring of access to services, experience and outcome by sexual orientation as a priority.

This project will undertake the evaluation of whether there is equitable access and treatment experiences for lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals in primary care psychological therapies services. This is the first such evaluation of IAPT service provision across England. If inequalities of access or treatment outcomes are identified, the authors will make recommendations about the next steps needed to help improve these health services.

The nature of the recommendations will depend on the findings – for example it is possible that particular subgroups, such as sexual minorities who are older or who are also from a minority ethnic background, have reduced access or poorer treatment outcomes. It may be that particular outreach activities to target these groups or additional staff training may be required.

The recommendations will be fed back to the National IAPT team who oversee IAPT services in England and the authors will liaise with them about how recommendations may be implemented. They will also be able to assist with dissemination to the local IAPT services. As mentioned above, the findings and recommendations will be disseminated at national conferences attended by IAPT therapists.

Source: NHS Digital.