Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce anxiety disorder in women under 35.

Alistair Burt

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services treat common mental health conditions, including anxiety. More than 3.5 million adults have entered the IAPT programme since its inception in 2008. Of that 3.5 million, over 2.1 million have completed treatment and over 725,000 are in recovery and more than 100,000 people have moved off sick pay and benefits.

We have introduced waiting times standards to ensure better access to IAPT so that 75% of people referred to IAPT receive treatment within six weeks and 95% receive treatment within 18 weeks.

In January 2016, the Government announced almost £1 billion of additional investment for mental health, which included £290 million of new investment over the next five years to provide mental healthcare for perinatal care.