We Have Responded to the Royal College of Psychiatrists
- Jul 1
- 3 min read
Continuing the dialogue on ME, Long Covid and evidence-based psychiatric education
Audio on Substack
In June, the Royal College of Psychiatrists responded to our open letter concerning the framing of Long Covid at the Royal College of Psychiatrists International Congress.
We welcomed the opportunity to receive a formal response. Rather than replying immediately, we took time to consult with many of the charities, organisations, clinicians, researchers and patient advocates who supported our original correspondence. While perspectives naturally varied, there was remarkable consensus on the key themes, which have informed our response.
The response to our original open letter demonstrated that these concerns are shared widely across the ME and Long Covid community. We remain deeply grateful to everyone who contributed their expertise, experience and thoughtful reflections.
Our concerns have never been about the role of psychiatry itself. On the contrary, we recognise the valuable contribution psychiatrists could make from an informed position in supporting people living with ME and Long Covid, including those experiencing grief, trauma, isolation, uncertainty, co-existing mental health conditions and poor social conditions. Families and carers also frequently require support yet often can not access effective and safe care.
However, we believe that psychiatric and psychological care must begin from an accurate understanding of the underlying biological disease. Good mental healthcare and biomedical understanding are complementary, not competing, aspects of patient care. And this starts from listening to patient expertise.
Consultation with our coalition reinforced several ongoing concerns, including the continued influence of and reliance on outdated historical psychological and behavioural explanatory models despite an evolving biomedical evidence base, the need for educational programs to reflect current evidence and NICE guideline NG206, and the importance of ensuring that future Congress programming presents delegates with balanced representation of current clinical guidance and scientific evidence. We also reaffirmed the practical actions requested in our original open letter, which remain unchanged.
During the International Congress, a volunteer from Long Covid Advocacy attended the registration reception and respectfully distributed copies of our open letter to delegates. We were encouraged by the thoughtful conversations that took place and by the willingness of psychiatrists and delegates to engage. These interactions reinforced our belief that there is genuine appetite for constructive dialogue between psychiatrists and the patient community.
We were also encouraged to read the Royal College's recently published Women's Mental Health Action Plan that describes women as "dismissed, siloed and misunderstood". Given that both ME and Long Covid disproportionately affect women, we believe this represents an important opportunity to ensure that the College's commitments to listening to lived experience, reducing inequalities and embedding partnership are reflected in future educational activity relating to these conditions.
Our response to the Royal College therefore reaffirms the actions requested in our original open letter, emphasises the important role psychiatry can play when grounded in an accurate understanding of the underlying biological disease, encourages future educational programming to better reflect current biomedical evidence and NICE guidance, and renews our request for a meeting and further dialogue with representatives of the Royal College to explore constructive ways forward.
Our campaign has always been rooted in respectful, evidence-based engagement. We remain committed to constructive dialogue and to working collaboratively in the interests of improving education, understanding and care for people living with ME and Long Covid.
For transparency, we are publishing both the Royal College of Psychiatrists' response and our reply in full.
Long Covid Advocacy Response
Royal College of Psychiatrists' Response to the Open Letter
For a reminder Prof Lade Smith’s response to the initial open letter is above.
We would like to thank every organisation, clinician, researcher, healthcare professional, advocate and individual who is a signatory to this campaign.
The strength of this work has come not from any one organisation, but from the breadth of expertise, lived experience and collaboration that has informed every stage of the process.
We remain committed to respectful, clear, persistent engagement with the Royal College of Psychiatrists and look forward to continuing this dialogue in the shared interest of improving education, understanding and care for people living with ME and Long Covid.
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