Psychological therapies waiting times
Quarter ending December 2023
An Official Statistics publication for Scotland
- Published
- 05 March 2024 (Latest release)
- Type
- Statistical report
- Author
- Public Health Scotland
About this release
This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides an update on how long people of all ages waited to start treatment with psychological therapies in NHS Scotland for the quarter ending December 2023.
Main points
For the quarter ending December 2023:
- 80.6% of people of all ages started their treatment within 18 weeks of referral, compared to 79.4% of people for the previous quarter, and 81.4% of people for the quarter ending December 2022. The Scottish Government standard states that 90% of people should start their treatment within 18 weeks of referral to psychological therapies.
- 50% of the people of all ages starting treatment started within 3 weeks of referral.
- 18,457 people of all ages started psychological therapies treatment in NHS Boards in the quarter ending December 2023. This is an increase of 0.9% (156) from the previous quarter, and an increase of 0.6% (106) from the quarter ending December 2022.
- 1,445 people aged 65+ years started treatment with psychological therapies in this quarter. 80.6% started their treatment within 18 weeks of referral, a decrease from 83.3% in the previous quarter and an increase from 79.7% for the quarter ending December 2022.
- A total of 34,505 people of all ages were referred for psychological therapies (and in some cases further adult mental health services) in Scotland in this quarter (see the Data Quality Document). This is a decrease of 18.2% (7,676) from 42,181 people referred in the previous quarter and a 10.3% (3,982) decrease from 38,487 referrals in the same quarter ending December 2022.
Background
Waiting times information for psychological therapies is still being developed. NHS Boards are working with PHS and the Scottish Government to improve the consistency and completeness of the information.
Psychological therapies refer to a range of interventions, based on psychological concepts and theory, which are designed to help people understand and make changes to their thinking, behaviour and relationships in order to relieve distress and to improve functioning. The standard applies specifically to psychological therapies for treatment of a mental illness or disorder.
Please note from November 2023, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde report in accordance with PHS updated Psychological Therapies and Interventions Waiting Times Standard Definitions released in September 2023. Please see the Data Quality Document for more information.
Further information
The next release of this publication will be 4 June 2024.
General enquiries
If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please contact Santiago Nieva at phs.psychtherapies@phs.scot.
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Older versions of this publication
Versions of this publication released before 16 March 2020 may be found on the Data and Intelligence, Health Protection Scotland or Improving Health websites.