I asked an IAPT psychologist what 'recovered' meant when reported to NHS commissioners, they said when the person no longer reaches 'caseness'.
As google will tell you, caseness is the term used to describe a referral that scores highly enough on measures of depression and anxiety to be classed as a clinical case.
So *I THINK* that if (totally random numbers here) 6/10 was 'caseness' and the person went from 6/10 before therapy to 5/10 immediately after therapy then they count them as recovered.
If I had the time and the inclination I'd want to dig into the reporting and see whether they balance that against the average number of people who would go from caseness to not caseness over six weeks without any intervention, and also whether they do longer term follow ups (pretty sure both are a no).
Reliable improvement "requires that any improvement in scores on the appropriate outcome measures between pre and post treatment exceeds the measurement error of the scales".
There is a lot going on here - for example if you think about the GP system then with their 7min appt slots combining with other obligations then IAPT simply presents a 'fix' they might have little choice about to cover them legally as having somewhere to send people for conversations they are not provided time to have. And a drop-down menu of things they can refer for, or do something about that gets shorter and shorter.
And yes you are then into barrel-scraping territory when you compare satisfaction scores that are carefully concocted so that they focus only on the bit where 'someone being able to let you finish describing the situation you are in' makes for a one point difference out of politeness which is outrageously interpreted as 'cure' rather than the lowest of the low attitude towards anyone who sits under this.
Maybe a sidenote, maybe not, but I really want detail on the scripts and protocols here. This is actually a
huge thing that it represents happenning societally being hidden under ambiguous stuff.
In my mind the interesting thing about the 'BPSM model' is that - if you imagine it in sociology or something - modelled correctly it actually lays out a process for a bigotry or discrimination ie how that 'as a psychology' is used to justify in others behaviours that are not actually appropriate or correct, under a 'belief system' imposed or held or taught into a society.
Indeed it is nothing like any real psychology model because it was always anti-psychology in the sense that it removed all detail and direction, specifically seeking to
not find the 'cause' in order to 'treat that' ie diagnose, but instead to as others have said 'persuade the sufferer it is their lot, their fault and their issue to put up with'. This isn't what is in the sales pitch (which is nonsense about 'teach you to cope') and they seem to be incredibly careful about never putting detail about what those referred are persuaded or told as a direction of travel to do - despite it being the most scripted and directed treatment of this sort ever.
If you imagine society expectations of get ill --> someone looks into it --> adjustments made in order that you keep your work between having treatment + having any changes made to allow you to still work and all the legal stuff behind that --> those around you are taught of these issues that they need to support and how their demands need to be adjusted, and all the other legal stuff people talk of like the insurances and policies most people do buy in order to make sure they aren't scrap-heaped if the worst should happen.
I have a feeling from some of those I have watched going through these things that people in the midst of the stress of trying to get their basic rights and battlinga system where that is made inappropriately hard to get their basic legal entittlements and truth that manyof these 'courses' simply persuade people that the better route is for them to admit 'they are the problem' get used to 'you aren't going to get what you deserve' and realise that the isssue is 'you can't cope with stress so should do a smaller job paid less' of course with lots of manipulative sales spiel to persuade that person it is their choice.
I can't think of less specific ways to put this because ill-health instigates all of this if it isn't going to be treated. And pathwaying out that 'total support and push of travel' is mapping whether it is a bigotry or a help. So it is vital. Because it is being used as a replacement for what a few decades ago would be a medic writing appropriate medical adjustments, doing referrals and having functional services and legal protections. And someone needs to map
all of this. Because IAPT isn't just what the course pretends to be, just the persuader bit once people are dropped into that nightmare where they realise all that stuff is gone and they've been labelled making them weakened whilst it is all falling apart saying 'well at least this is something other than total dropping through the floor and as it is all you are going to be allowed then learn to be happy about it'. It isn't psychology in the mental health sense at all and we need to look at the entire system.