I have had a thought about anther type of campaign. This might work in conjunction with other approaches (we need to move on every front) but I don't know how applicable it is in the UK, and it is not without risks - too many patients are dis-empowered by the establishment, especially in the UK.
We should be promoting the view, and enable a website (preferably not in the UK) to publish all failed accounts of CBT/GET, and encourage those posting to lodge a formal complaint through the established medical complaint procedures in the UK. A little research should tell us what they are, but I bet that some professional medical organizations, hospitals and maybe government have their own complaint procedures. Complain on every one.
We should be especially encouraging complaints about CBT/GET in which patients are made worse. I know such complaints are whitewashed, but volume counts. Sophia Mirza was one person, what if thousands of such cases, although perhaps less severe in outcome, were made public?
All of this should be public. This has three outcomes. The first is that it publically embarrasses the government and any doctor or hospital involved. The second is it is a public record of failure. The third is that the complaint procedures will be snowed under. They will probably do pro forma rejections, if not at first then after a while, but then we have opened up a separate human rights issue which we can complain about. If they are not willing to pay small amounts per patient for medical research and good medical care, make em pay large amounts on complaints and PR. I am not talking about legal action, there are separate risks in court actions.
The downside is that individuals that do this risk being labelled as troublemakers, and treated even more badly. My counter to this is make all such treatment public, every time, including all documentation. Make everyone know they are being watched, and will be publically named.
I only write about this because I have been thinking of doing something like this in Australia since our main political parties keep muttering about how well disability is handled in the UK, in a cost containment sense.
Bye
Alex