About

About the SHARP Project

Self-Help Access in Routine Primary Care or ‘SHARP’ was a collaborative project which was initiated in 2006 with the support of the Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority, The University of Huddersfield, Wakefield Primary Care Trust and the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

The project was initially developed in response to local concerns in the Wakefield District where access to appropriate self-help material in a primary care setting was limited. A further impetus to the project was feedback from some primary care health practitioners who highlighted the lack of confidence, skill, time and resources to work with mental health issues. Given this and the fact that problems with anxiety, depression and stress are so common, the SHARP website, leaflets and training were developed to support primary care practitioners (GPs, practice nurses and health visitors) in their routine work. The project then moved on to a "train the trainers" phase as part of the regional implementation of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Services (IAPT). The SHARP training was then provided to other NHS staff including healthcare support workers in mental health services and practitioners in drugs and alcohol support services and NHS staff counselling services. 

The SHARP leaflets are based on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). CBT based guided self-help is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for persistent subthreshold depressive symptoms or mild to moderate depression and for depression in adults with a chronic physical health problem. CBT based guided self-help is also recommended by NICE for panic disorder and generalised anxiety disorder. These interventions should be provided in a stepped care service model, so that people who require a more intensive psychological intervention have the opportunity to access it.

Acknowledgments

Self-help Access in Routine Primary Care (SHARP) was developed by Professor Mike Lucock, Mike Lawson, a CBT therapist, and Dr Stuart Lloyd, General Practitioner at Ash Grove Surgery, Knottingley, England. We would like to thank Dr Chris Williams who gave us permission for sections of his self-help books, ‘Overcoming Depression’ and ‘Overcoming Anxiety’ to be edited for some of the SHARP leaflets.

For further information on the SHARP project please contact Mike Lucock on m.lucock@hud.ac.uk.