Paul Woodcraft and colleagues describe how a computer-aided intervention, Beating the Blues, was successfully introduced in a cognitive behaviour therapy service as an alternative to face-to-face contact

The aim of this article is to describe the implementation of a computer-aided cognitive behaviour intervention, Beating the Blues, in an NHS cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) specialist service. Because of increasing referrals and extended waiting lists, this approach was introduced to the service in 2001. Its use in a secondary care service was unusual in that it had been developed for use in primary care as a standalone therapeutic intervention. As an extra therapeutic tool, which carries its own caseload, it has provided greater accessibility to CBT interventions by increasing service capacity.