COUPLES who have hit a “rocky patch” will be offered counselling on the NHS if their relationship problems are causing depression.
The free advice will be available from April as part of the Government’s talking therapies programme, IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies), which was set up to help people suffering from anxiety and depression get off sick pay and benefits and back to work.
The move, to be unveiled this week by Health Secretary Andy Burnham, will implement National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) guidance that recommends relationship therapy should be offered under the IAPT programme.
But the plan drew criticism from patients and doctors’ groups.
Nick James, professor of clinical oncology at the Cancer Research UK Institute for Cancer Studies, told a Sunday newspaper: “I am horrified. I think most people would say treatment for those with cancer should be top of our list.”
