The Government is set to widen its Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) program to include under-18s.

The move comes after a new report into mental health found children facing a long waiting time to receive ‘talking therapies’ such as ‘cognitive behaviour therapy’ (CBT).

Recommendations from the report include the widening of child and adolescent mental health by making psychological therapy available to 1 in 10 school children suffering with mental illness, a five-year plan to train an extra 1,000 therapists and upgrading the quality of psychological services by 2013.

The Department of Health had already pledged to recruit an extra 3,600 therapists last March in an effort to provide cognitive behaviour therapy and other psychological therapies to referred patients by 2011.

The long waiting times for NHS mental health services is one of the main reasons why many people choose to book private appointments with ‘talking therapy’ practitioners.

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