Following an extensive engagement process, NHS England national mental health team has announced a new name for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services: NHS Talking Therapies.

The new name will be rolled out in all services across the country in 2023. This was chosen after a public consultation with close to 4,000 responses and a series of focus groups led by an independent research group. Feedback analysis demonstrated that the name NHS Talking Therapies felt more accessible to the public and easy to understand, and that it described the scope of IAPT services better.

In 2008 new NHS IAPT services were launched that made a simple promise to the public – to provide effective psychological therapies to far more people experiencing the most common mental health problems: anxiety and depression. Immediately before this the average waiting time for psychological therapy on the NHS was 18 months. Now it is just a few weeks. The new services had three qualities embedded: that they would provide psychological therapies recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, with well-trained and supervised therapists, and would track and publish outcomes for every service. This promise remains the same, although the name of services is changing.

The new name is being rolled out with immediate effect – please do join us in spreading the word about the new name for these vital services, and what they offer, so that they can reach and help even more people.

You can find out more here.