Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support his Department offers to people who were abused as children.

Childhood sexual abuse can have a huge effect on an individual’s mental health and result in conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm and suicide. Adults who have mental health difficulties as a result of abuse or trauma that they suffered as children should be referred to mental health services, depending on their particular needs.

The Government has invested over £400 million in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services. IAPT services provide trauma based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) as standard and increasingly Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for the treatment of PTSD that may be present for individuals who have experienced childhood sexual abuse.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is approved by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence as a treatment for PTSD and is available routinely through IAPT services based in primary care and funded by the National Health Service.