Relate Press Releases
NOV 09 / Relate’s response to the Department of Health announcement that relationship counselling will be offered as part of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies
Mel Merritt, a spokesperson for Relate, the UK's largest provider of relationship counselling, said:
“We have been lobbying for the remit of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies to be extended and welcome any initiative which gives more people access to couple counselling but we wait to hear the detail of this programme.
“The IAPT service is offered to clients who have been assessed as in need of a therapeutic intervention to address their clinical depression and anxiety. Relate has been in talks with representatives of IAPT to promote the value and effectiveness of relationship therapy as another service which we believe should be available to people who have clinical depression. This new proposal would be about providing a new service those with clinical depression and anxiety.
Relate will continue to provide relationship counselling and therapy to the majority of people who will not be in contact with the NHS and IAPT.
“We know that people who have come to Relate have found that relationship counselling not only had a positive impact on them as a couple but also benefited their family life, parenting skills and their ability to cope with work.”
Ends
For press information contact Mel Merritt Press Officer Relate 07971 869735
Note Editors
- Relate sees some 150,000 people annually, including 22,000 children and young people and 9,000 families. Face to face services are provided by two-thousand practitioners working in seventy-eight local Centres across England and Wales. Relate also works with clients in a range of other locations including GP surgeries, Children’s Centres and schools. In addition, counselling is provided over the telephone and via email.
- To provide one session of couple’s counselling it costs Relate between £45 – 60 but the cost to client varies with many centres offering bursary schemes for clients unable to cover the costs. On average Relate were able to subsidise clients by 53%, (Relate Annual Review 08/09).
Research from Relate: The Difference We Make, July 2009
Relationships
- 80% of clients for whom the question was relevant said Relate had had a positive effect in helping them maintain or strengthen their couple relationship
- 73% of client for whom the question was relevant said Relate had a positive effect in helping them to save their couple relationship
- 74% of clients, for whom the question was relevant, felt that we had helped them come to terms with a relationship which had ended
Parenting
- There was a 20% decrease in days off school taken by children whose parents used our service
- 72% of clients, for whom the question was relevant felt they were better able to deal with the arrival of children or their on-going care
Work
- 58% of clients felt we had had a positive effect on their ability to concentrate as work
- 45% of clients felt we had had a positive effect on their ability to manage conflict at work
Individual
- 70% of clients felt we had a positive effect on their self-confidence
- 98% of clients said they would recommend Relate services to friends and family
Research based on completed questionnaires of 29,000 Relate Clients. Participating Centres selected themselves and were not chosen on a representative basis. Relate is working to promote health, respect and justice in couple and family relationships
• Relate’s services extend beyond couple counselling to family counselling, counselling for young people, online counselling, sex therapy and relationship skills workshops
• Relate works in schools, primary care settings, prisons, and with local authorities on homelessness prevention services
• Relate supports 150,000 people each year in over 600 locations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
• Relate has a work-force of 2,000 people nationwide