Dr Rebecca Courtney-Walker, writes in The Psychologist (March 2019 issue):
“In 2016, the British Psychological Society was approached by NHS England to consider if there was a need for the further extension of prescribing and medicines supply mechanisms to include psychologists.
A Task and Finish Group was established in 2018 to develop a position statement for the Society for consideration by the Professional Practice Board (PPB) …
The group is working to consider whether psychologists as prescribers can be an aid to reducing health inequality by ensuring that a person’s psychological formulation and understanding of their lived experience is clearly understood before co-producing person-centred interventions that may, or may not include medication. This may have the potential to empower clients to make more informed decisions about their care in the context of their formulation, and to choose whether they would want any suggested medication prescribed by their psychologist or by a different professional. Formulation-Informed Prescribing may also potentially allow for re-prioritising of psychological formulations and treatments in a more meaningful way within a modern health service and other relevant settings. …”
Read more here.
Thanks for sharing this on your website. We now have a detailed discussion paper for people to read and if possible respond using a response form on the BPS website. We want to elicit as wide a range of views as possible as this is a really important topic. The details can be found at https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/should-psychologists-have-option-prescribe-medication