In 2023 an innovative acupuncture group therapy service was set up through a collaboration between Inner City Gloucester Primary Care Network and the British Acupuncture Council. The project was designed to serve patients with the highest prevalence of mental health needs in Gloucestershire in the highest areas of deprivation in the Southwest of England.

The project is a highly cost-effective and holistic mental health intervention that promotes wellness and an alternative patient choice. Preliminary data indicates that the service is supporting patients to make positive changes in their lives and has the potential for wider variety of additional benefits such as smoking cessation and reliance on medications. The service as inclusive, safe and accessible with patients from excluded minorities such as the traveller community and migrants.

Using the NHS Generalised Anxiety Disorder metric (GAD-7) scores, clear anxiety reduction was documented with an average GAD-7 score of 15.53 (severe anxiety) at entry lowering to 8.09 (mild anxiety) at course completion. The project not only has significant implications for the future of mental health care but also for a government-backed strategy to address the NHS workforce crisis.

As members of the British Acupuncture Council, the acupuncturists delivering the treatment were members of a Professional Standards Authority Accredited Register. As such, the service demonstrates how right-touch regulation of non-statutory regulated healthcare professionals can be used to ensure patient safety within the mainstream healthcare system.

Hear from the acupuncturists delivering the service and the Chief Executive Officer of the British Acupuncture Council, Alex Jacobs, on the promising strategy to meet the mental healthcare needs of the UK public.