What do you think?
Rate this book
Thrive: The Power of Evidence-Based Psychological Therapies
Britain has become a world leader in providing psychological therapies thanks to the work of Richard Layard and David Clark. But, even so, in Britain and worldwide the majority of people who need help still don't get treatment. This is both unjust and a false economy.
This book argues for change. It shows that mental ill-health causes more of the suffering in our society than physical illness, poverty or unemployment. Moreover, greater spending on helping people to recover from mental health problems - and stay well - would generate massive savings to national economies, as those who suffer from depression and anxiety disorders account for nearly a half of all disability and are predominantly of working age. Modern talking therapies, such as CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), are highly effective, and if more sufferers got these treatments, lives would be turned around and the cost would be fully covered by the huge savings.
Thrive explores the new effective solutions to the misery and injustice caused by mental illness. It describes how successful psychological treatments have been developed and explains what works best for whom. It also urges us to do all we can to prevent these problems in the first place, through better schools and a better society. And, most importantly, it offers real hope.
This book argues for change. It shows that mental ill-health causes more of the suffering in our society than physical illness, poverty or unemployment. Moreover, greater spending on helping people to recover from mental health problems - and stay well - would generate massive savings to national economies, as those who suffer from depression and anxiety disorders account for nearly a half of all disability and are predominantly of working age. Modern talking therapies, such as CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), are highly effective, and if more sufferers got these treatments, lives would be turned around and the cost would be fully covered by the huge savings.
Thrive explores the new effective solutions to the misery and injustice caused by mental illness. It describes how successful psychological treatments have been developed and explains what works best for whom. It also urges us to do all we can to prevent these problems in the first place, through better schools and a better society. And, most importantly, it offers real hope.
357 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
19 people are currently reading
422 people want to read
About the author
Richard Layard
71 books46 followersPeter Richard Grenville Layard, Baron Layard FBA, is a British labour economist, currently working as programme director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.
His early career focused on how to reduce unemployment and inequality. He was Senior Research Officer for the famous Robbins Committee on Higher Education. This committee's report led to the massive expansion of UK university education in the 1960s and 1970s.
Following research on happiness begun in the 1970s by economists such as Richard Easterlin at the University of Southern California, he has written about the economics of happiness, with one theme being the importance of non-income variables on aggregate happiness, including mental health.
His main current interest is how better mental health could improve our social and economic life. His work on mental health, including publishing The Depression Report in 2006, led to the establishment of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme in England. He is co-editor of the World Happiness Report, with John F. Helliwell and Jeffrey Sachs.
His early career focused on how to reduce unemployment and inequality. He was Senior Research Officer for the famous Robbins Committee on Higher Education. This committee's report led to the massive expansion of UK university education in the 1960s and 1970s.
Following research on happiness begun in the 1970s by economists such as Richard Easterlin at the University of Southern California, he has written about the economics of happiness, with one theme being the importance of non-income variables on aggregate happiness, including mental health.
His main current interest is how better mental health could improve our social and economic life. His work on mental health, including publishing The Depression Report in 2006, led to the establishment of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme in England. He is co-editor of the World Happiness Report, with John F. Helliwell and Jeffrey Sachs.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 13, 2017
Досить цікава книжка, яка обґрунтовує важливість уваги до психічного здоров'я. В книжці дуже багато цифр, графіків, та пояснень, частина з яких використовувались для збільшення фінансування психотерапії в Британії. Власне проблема полягає в тому, що різноманітні психологічні труднощі роблять непрацездатними більшу частку людей, ніж будь-які фізичні хвороби. При цьому лікування отримує менше третини тих, хто цього потребує. Цікаво, що ці труднощі є базовими для благополуччя великої кількості людей. Навіть для успішного навчання учнів важливіший клімат в родині, ніж підготовка вчителів та інші академічні речі. Досить добре все пояснено та обґрунтовано.
August 25, 2018
A well-referenced and fact-filled book with some moments that are eye-openers and others that are seemingly obvious, repeated over and over. The entire book is spent lamenting the current state of mental health treatment in the UK and then it becomes apparent that since 2005, IAPT (the authors' own project) is a large provider of mental health treatment which is seemingly contradictory.
They also outline at the end a utopian ideal, but for each of the 4 points they make, spend a disproportionate time exploring how to solve each in the preceding book. For example, it is said that teachers and schools need better training in mental health symptoms and treatments but doesn't lay out a plan to achieve this, but briefly mentions it in one chapter and claims it is 25% of the solution to such a big problem.
Dense with facts and figures, the book is great for studies relating to the effectiveness of different therapies and for a good overall representation of the national and international issue of mental health.
They also outline at the end a utopian ideal, but for each of the 4 points they make, spend a disproportionate time exploring how to solve each in the preceding book. For example, it is said that teachers and schools need better training in mental health symptoms and treatments but doesn't lay out a plan to achieve this, but briefly mentions it in one chapter and claims it is 25% of the solution to such a big problem.
Dense with facts and figures, the book is great for studies relating to the effectiveness of different therapies and for a good overall representation of the national and international issue of mental health.
October 31, 2015
A third of the population will experience mental illness at some point in their lives. Depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders whether mild or severe degrade quality of life and in too many cases lead to suicide. Whether as a result of the persistent stigma associated with mental illness or due to a mistaken belief that there is not effective treatment available too many people to not get help. Data suggests that fully 70% of people suffering from a mental illness do not get treatment. The costs to individuals, families, organizations, and society far outweigh the investment needed to provide effective care. In the UK, the national health service has experimented with an innovative program of training therapists and channeling people into care with close follow-up and collection of outcomes data. In the US, firms like Castlight and Lyra Health are pioneering solutions that offer real potential for progress. The book is a good primer on the scale of the problem, efficacy of common therapies, and potential societal solutions.
April 4, 2022
Enjoyed this book in regards to learning about the subject. Particularly appreciated the range of statistics worldwide provided. Would of loved more information explaination on many matters, as it seams more factual/statistic then philosophical.
August 25, 2019
If you are looking to find the best therapy for a mental illness condition, this book lays out scientific evidence in an easy to understand format. Recommendations are based on the information given by NICE National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
This is not a self health book but a signpost so you can get the help you or your family needs.
This is not a self health book but a signpost so you can get the help you or your family needs.
March 23, 2018
Hugely informative and nicely broken up with figures and tables to reinforce research findings. There was some interesting discussion around a wide breadth of topics directly related to mental health and the evidence base behind the treatments we take for granted. Highly thought provoking.
December 19, 2017
rxcellent intro to the topic
Read
January 24, 2021Gelezen voor de cursus: Grondslagen van de Klinische Psychologie.
January 5, 2025
Informative, easy reading. Interesting to see if there will be a follow up book as over 10 years now.
October 21, 2024
Let’s not forget Lord Richard Layard is an economist and not a therapist…
August 10, 2015
Mental illness reduces national income by about 4%, and yet we only spend about 13% of our health budget and about 5% of our medical research funds on tackling the problem.
As an economist who writes a fair bit on mental health, I regularly trot out statements like this about how costly mental health problems are to society and how the under-provision of services is grossly inefficient. To some the point may now seem obvious and trite. As evidence grows ever more compelling, government policy slowly shifts in response. One success story is the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) initiative, which has greatly improved the availability of evidence-based treatment for some of the most prevalent mental health problems in the UK. Yet in many cases we still await adequate action from the government and decision-makers. Two key players in getting IAPT into government policy were Richard Layard – an economist – and David Clark – a psychologist. In their new book Thrive: The Power of Evidence-Based Psychological Therapies, Layard and Clark demonstrate the need for wider provision of cost-effective mental health care in the UK.
The book starts with a gentle introduction to mental illness; what it is, who suffers, the nature of treatment. This will give any reader a way in, with an engaging set-up for what follows (though with one third of families including someone with a mental illness, most people will find the topic relatable). The opening chapters go on to dig deeper into these questions; do these people get help, how does it affect their lives and what are the societal impacts? These chapters serve as a crash course in mental health and though the style is conversational and easily followed, on reflection you’ll realise that you’ve absorbed a great deal of information about mental health. More importantly, you’ll have a deeper understanding. This isn’t simply because of the number of statistics that have been thrown at you, but because of the personal stories and illustrations that accompany the numbers. This forms the first half of the book – ‘The Problem’ – which encourages the reader to start questioning why more isn’t being done. Economists may at times balk at the broad brush strokes in considering the societal ‘costs’ of mental health problems, but the figures are nevertheless startling.
From there the book continues to build. In the second half – ‘What Can Be Done?’ – the authors go on to explain that actually there’s a ton of effective therapies available. We know what they are and who they work for, but they aren’t available. There’s no doubt that the view of the evidence presented is an optimistic one, but it isn’t designed to mislead; where evidence is lacking, the authors say so. The book seems to be written with the sceptical academic in mind; no sooner can you start to question a claim than you are thrown another baffling statistic to chew on. Various therapies are explored, though the focus is undeniably on depression and anxiety and on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Readers with CBT bugbears may feel alienated by this, but should consider it within the broader scope of the book.
Readers would do well to stop after chapter 14. Things go sharply downhill from this point and could, for some readers, undermine what goes before. This would be a great shame. In all seriousness, chapters 15 and 16 would be better off read at a later date, once the rest of the book has been absorbed, understood and – possibly – acted upon. In the final chapters Layard and Clark make distinctly political proposals about how society should be organised. The happiness agenda takes centre stage. In places, mental illness is presented as simply the opposite of happiness. This is an unfortunate and unnecessary tangent. I have some sympathies with the happiness agenda, but for many I expect these chapters would ruin the book. The less said about them the better.
It is a scandal that so many people with mental health problems do not have access to the cost-effective treatments that exist. Layard and Clark demonstrate convincingly that the issue is of public interest. Thrive has the potential to instill in people the right amounts of sympathy, anger and understanding to bring about change. Many will disagree with their prescriptions, but this should not detract from the central message of the book.
As an economist who writes a fair bit on mental health, I regularly trot out statements like this about how costly mental health problems are to society and how the under-provision of services is grossly inefficient. To some the point may now seem obvious and trite. As evidence grows ever more compelling, government policy slowly shifts in response. One success story is the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) initiative, which has greatly improved the availability of evidence-based treatment for some of the most prevalent mental health problems in the UK. Yet in many cases we still await adequate action from the government and decision-makers. Two key players in getting IAPT into government policy were Richard Layard – an economist – and David Clark – a psychologist. In their new book Thrive: The Power of Evidence-Based Psychological Therapies, Layard and Clark demonstrate the need for wider provision of cost-effective mental health care in the UK.
The book starts with a gentle introduction to mental illness; what it is, who suffers, the nature of treatment. This will give any reader a way in, with an engaging set-up for what follows (though with one third of families including someone with a mental illness, most people will find the topic relatable). The opening chapters go on to dig deeper into these questions; do these people get help, how does it affect their lives and what are the societal impacts? These chapters serve as a crash course in mental health and though the style is conversational and easily followed, on reflection you’ll realise that you’ve absorbed a great deal of information about mental health. More importantly, you’ll have a deeper understanding. This isn’t simply because of the number of statistics that have been thrown at you, but because of the personal stories and illustrations that accompany the numbers. This forms the first half of the book – ‘The Problem’ – which encourages the reader to start questioning why more isn’t being done. Economists may at times balk at the broad brush strokes in considering the societal ‘costs’ of mental health problems, but the figures are nevertheless startling.
From there the book continues to build. In the second half – ‘What Can Be Done?’ – the authors go on to explain that actually there’s a ton of effective therapies available. We know what they are and who they work for, but they aren’t available. There’s no doubt that the view of the evidence presented is an optimistic one, but it isn’t designed to mislead; where evidence is lacking, the authors say so. The book seems to be written with the sceptical academic in mind; no sooner can you start to question a claim than you are thrown another baffling statistic to chew on. Various therapies are explored, though the focus is undeniably on depression and anxiety and on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Readers with CBT bugbears may feel alienated by this, but should consider it within the broader scope of the book.
Readers would do well to stop after chapter 14. Things go sharply downhill from this point and could, for some readers, undermine what goes before. This would be a great shame. In all seriousness, chapters 15 and 16 would be better off read at a later date, once the rest of the book has been absorbed, understood and – possibly – acted upon. In the final chapters Layard and Clark make distinctly political proposals about how society should be organised. The happiness agenda takes centre stage. In places, mental illness is presented as simply the opposite of happiness. This is an unfortunate and unnecessary tangent. I have some sympathies with the happiness agenda, but for many I expect these chapters would ruin the book. The less said about them the better.
It is a scandal that so many people with mental health problems do not have access to the cost-effective treatments that exist. Layard and Clark demonstrate convincingly that the issue is of public interest. Thrive has the potential to instill in people the right amounts of sympathy, anger and understanding to bring about change. Many will disagree with their prescriptions, but this should not detract from the central message of the book.
July 24, 2015
I was sent this book to review for The Psychologist, so I can't write anything here that I wish to add in the article which will be published sometime this autumn. However, as a Psychological Therapist myself I found the book to be accessible to both qualified practitioners (psychologists/psychotherapists) and the public alike.
Layard (a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Oxford University) and his fellow writer and economist set about offering the reader a glimpse into the social problem of mental health issues. The founder and lobbyist for the IAPT programme (which aims to make psychological therapies more accessible to the public for low to medium risk patients/clients of anxiety/depression and children of conduct disorders and ADHD, as well as those individuals who've suffered from trauma or who require support in coping with schizophrenia or personality disorders) explains why dealing with biological (that age-old nature-nurture debate) or life adversity risks to clinical mental health disorders is not helping. In fact medicalizing something individuals can seek psychological therapy for themselves at a very low or no cost through IAPT services or the own GP practice is discussed at length.
Layard also explains how getting schools, healthcare professionals (even of physical health provision) and employment departments (such as the DWP and large organisations) involved can benefit a society which spends more resources, still, on physical health care (heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes) rather than the mental health problems which are rampant and actually create or exasperate physical health complaints.
This book is both informative and transparent stating that psychological therapy, and indeed CBT, is not the only form of treatment, but is ecologically and systemically validated just as much as cancer or diabetes treatment. It works, it's cheap, benefits society, and enables individuals to return to work, thus benefiting society and decreasing the need for lengthy incapacity/disability benefit expenditure and long-term unemployment. In the short-term it benefits individuals to offer them psychological treatment. In the long-term it benefits society and actually saves the government, tax payer's, and therefore, the country billions of pounds.
All in all, a very well written book, without the jargon about the importance of policy and public awareness of the mental health crisis in today's Britain. Anyone can read it- you should.
Layard (a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Oxford University) and his fellow writer and economist set about offering the reader a glimpse into the social problem of mental health issues. The founder and lobbyist for the IAPT programme (which aims to make psychological therapies more accessible to the public for low to medium risk patients/clients of anxiety/depression and children of conduct disorders and ADHD, as well as those individuals who've suffered from trauma or who require support in coping with schizophrenia or personality disorders) explains why dealing with biological (that age-old nature-nurture debate) or life adversity risks to clinical mental health disorders is not helping. In fact medicalizing something individuals can seek psychological therapy for themselves at a very low or no cost through IAPT services or the own GP practice is discussed at length.
Layard also explains how getting schools, healthcare professionals (even of physical health provision) and employment departments (such as the DWP and large organisations) involved can benefit a society which spends more resources, still, on physical health care (heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes) rather than the mental health problems which are rampant and actually create or exasperate physical health complaints.
This book is both informative and transparent stating that psychological therapy, and indeed CBT, is not the only form of treatment, but is ecologically and systemically validated just as much as cancer or diabetes treatment. It works, it's cheap, benefits society, and enables individuals to return to work, thus benefiting society and decreasing the need for lengthy incapacity/disability benefit expenditure and long-term unemployment. In the short-term it benefits individuals to offer them psychological treatment. In the long-term it benefits society and actually saves the government, tax payer's, and therefore, the country billions of pounds.
All in all, a very well written book, without the jargon about the importance of policy and public awareness of the mental health crisis in today's Britain. Anyone can read it- you should.
January 24, 2015
An exquisite, concise, enjoyable read, even for someone who has worked in the mental health sector and is studying clinical psychology. With my background, I found I already knew a lot of the content, but the way Layard and Clark present it makes reading worthwhile.
August 18, 2022
Thrive is a good book if you are new to learning about mental health and its effects on society. It is a great introduction to a lot of aspects of how we treat mental health in the world and offers a decent high level overview.
November 15, 2015
A great summary of existing therapies for mental illnesses and a call for change in mental care. The book applies mostly to rich societies, and this is where I found its major flaw.
November 6, 2016
Authoritative but accessible.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews