Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to widen access to appropriate therapy treatments for people with post-traumatic stress disorder (a) nationally and (b) in Chichester constituency.

The NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board is responsible for commissioning services to meet the mental health needs of the people in Chichester.

People with post-traumatic stress disorder can self-refer to NHS Talking Therapies or their general practitioner can refer them.

Nationally, the Government is investing an extra £688 million this year to transform mental health services. We have chosen to prioritise funding to expand NHS Talking Therapies, so that the number of people completing a course of treatment is expected to increase by 384,000 by 2028/29.

We are also delivering on our commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers for children and adults by the end of this Parliament. We are more than halfway towards this target, which will help to ease pressure on busy mental health services.