How can the psychological professions contribute to the 10 Year Health Plan’s three shifts?

The psychological professions are vital to support the delivery of the 10 Year Health Plan’s priorities, aligned to the three strategic shifts:

1 Treatment to Prevention

• Use psychological approaches to promote healthy habits and reduce obesity, smoking, substance use, harmful drinking and gambling
• Work in multi-disciplinary neighbourhood teams and schools to improve the psychological health of communities and reduce health inequalities
• Boost wellbeing, reduce healthcare use, and support engagement in education, the workplace and communities through psychological interventions for mental health conditions

2 Hospital to Community

• Use psychological methods with people of all ages to improve management and treatment of physical illness to improve quality of life, reducing recovery times and hospital visits
• Help people with long-term health problems by offering psychological therapies for anxiety and depression related to these issues
• Provide psychological interventions in the community for conditions like psychosis, bipolar disorder, ‘personality disorders’, and eating disorders to prevent admissions for mental health inpatient treatment
• Reduce length of crisis and inpatient mental health care by embedding a psychological approach

3 Analogue to Digital

• Champion the anonymous tracking and reporting of patient outcomes across all services, improving effectiveness and productivity
• Develop online or tech-based psychological treatments backed by research
• Use digital technology to make access to psychological healthcare easier and more efficient
• Use behaviour change expertise to support NHS teams to adopt digital health technologies

You can access related resources below:

• Three shifts email signature
• Lord Darzi's Independent investigation of the NHS in England
• PPN Career Map