A Scheme That Works With The NHS To Help Anxiety Sufferers, UK

Main Category: Anxiety / Stress
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 19 Feb 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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A South London surgery is taking important steps in helping sufferers of anxiety and mild psychological distress deal with their problems without medication or counselling. They are recommending that selected patients attend a relaxation and stress management programme hosted at the GPs' surgery by the Relaxation For Living Institute. This programme of four weekly 1½ hour classes helps the patients deal with the symptoms of anxiety and manage their response to the stresses of daily life more effectively.

Doctors are increasingly researching alternative methods of helping their patients deal with the growing epidemic of anxiety and ill-health caused by work-related stress. The negative effects of stress are responsible for 6 million sick days a year in the UK alone. According to a national survey, 1 in 5 people are stressed even before they eat their breakfast and half the UK population struggles to sleep at night because of an inability to "switch off". The Relaxation for Living Institute offers a simple, accessible programme that can help everyone suffering from these problems without the need for medication.

Dr. Ismat Nasiruddin, a GP with a special interest in psychiatry, says about the RFLI:

"I am so impressed with Relaxation for Living because it offers accessible and sound advice to a broad range of individuals, allowing some control in an area where control is often hard to locate. Stress affects a vast number of people and can result in significant symptoms. Within the confines of the NHS it is hard to provide good quality care for mild psychological distress (counselling being extremely limited and prioritised) despite it being for many people quite debilitating or threatening longer-term morbidity. Support systems like Relaxation for Living are invaluable, allowing us to offer good all-round support at an earlier stage, preventing further distress and empowering patients."

Relaxation for Living Institute Director, Richard Hilliard, who has been teaching relaxation for more than 20 years, believes the programme designed by the Institute not only offers sufferers a simple range of solutions to a potentially disabling set of problems but can also enhance the cost-effectiveness of the NHS practices. As the classes become more and more widely adopted the need for expensive medication and secondary services will be reduced and GPs will be able to offer their patients another method of dealing with their condition. Very often medication is not the answer - simple exercises, breathing techniques and guided self-awareness can have a longer-lasting effect.

About The Relaxation For Living Institute

First started in 1972, Relaxation for Living has a long-revered presence in the community and in 2005 the new Relaxation for Living Institute was created. They are now preparing a new series of products to help us cope with the ever-increasing demands that the stresses and strains of an increasingly complex world are making on us all.

The Institute also trains and licenses suitable individuals to teach the RFLI method and rebuild the RFLI network, working alongside the NHS.

The Relaxation For Living Institute