The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme started in 2008, but it contained little provision for specifically meeting the needs of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups. The purpose of this evaluation was to describe the experience of transition from BAME community mental health worker (CMHW) to IAPT low-intensity psychological wellbeing practitioner (PWP) in order to identify possible gains and losses for the former communities served, and the factors that might contribute to successful training of people with BAME expertise. Four former CMHWs who had transitioned into working as PWPs were interviewed. Semi-structured interviews were used. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. Six major themes were identified with the benefits of training emerging as an important factor for the participants in enhancing their role. Three of the themes interconnected and focused on the impact for BAME communities in terms of access to service and barriers. Evident in the interviews were descriptions of adaptations that were made as a result of CMHW having access to both new and old skills. Finally, two themes focused on the participant recommendations as to how IAPT services might become more culturally responsive. The findings suggest that there can be significant benefits for services to provide IAPT training to people already providing culturally specific services. The participants reported that low-intensity cognitive behavioural therapy (LICBT) was effective, but only when cultural sensitive adaptations were made. The evaluation has some clear recommendations as to how IAPT services might seek to offer culturally responsive CBT. Suggestions for carrying out further practice-based evaluations are made.

I am a Black British woman who was born in Manchester in the North West of England in the 1970s. My parents are both Jamaican and came to this country in the late 1960s. I grew up in innercity Manchester in a largely African-Caribbean and South Asian community. Within my experiences of this community, white people were considered as 'racist' and it was 'common knowledge' that as a Black child I would have to work twice as hard to achieve educational or economic 'success' and to avoid being arrested or blamed for something. Not because of any inherent biological deficit we possessed, but simply because of 'racism'. Within the community we were encouraged not to trust 'white people'. I have friends from these communities who have been arrested, beaten up by police, faced discrimination at work or who have been sectioned onto psychiatric wards, mostly black men. In terms of gender roles, I have grown up seeing black women being 'strong' out of necessity (often the breadwinner of the family) and black men who seem to be defeated. As a child in school, I and my female black friend, 'knew' that we would have a better chance at 'success' than our male counterparts. This was particularly relevant in the classroom, where we often witnessed black boys getting into trouble and being placed in lower educational streams. Little was expected of them.The above statement is taken from the personal reflection I included in qualitative research almost 16 years ago. This was written in the spirit of an Afrocentric