Mental Health Reform welcomes new counselling service in primary care
Mental Health Reform welcomes today’s (11/07/13) launch of the Counselling in Primary Care service that will enable adult medical card holders throughout the country to access time-limited counselling through their GP.
In response to the launch, Dr. Shari McDaid, Mental Health Reform’s spokesperson, commented: “One of the strongest messages to come out of the consultation that fed into the Government’s mental health policy A Vision for Change was that people in mental or emotional distress want alternatives to medication, including access to counselling and psychotherapy. The consensus at that time was that psychological therapies should be considered a fundamental component of basic mental health services. People who use mental health services and their family members have consistently told us that they want access to psychological therapies.”
Dr. Shari McDaid continued, “The roll-out of a national, free counselling service accessible through primary care is a welcome step towards meeting the need for alternatives to medication for mental and emotional distress. We view this as a positive measure to improve mental health in Ireland.”
“It will be important to monitor the impact of the service closely to see how far it goes to meeting the need for counselling services in primary care. Evidence shows that a majority of clients who seek psychotherapy would require 20-45 sessions in order to recover. The Counselling in Primary Care service provides short-term counselling with a maximum of eight sessions and there will still be a need for longer-term therapy for some clients.”
“The Counselling in Primary Care service also will not cater for individuals with moderate to severe mental health difficulties who will be required to seek access to psychological therapy through the mental health services. The Inspector of Mental Health Services reported in his review of services for 2012 that most people receiving mental health treatment are being offered a more traditional, medicalised version rather than that propounded in A Vision for Change. It is important that all the community mental health team staffing due in 2013 comes on stream this year to enable greater access to psychological therapies for people using mental health services as well”, Dr. McDaid concluded.
4 comments so far!
Sorcha
I am immensely disappointed that:
1. It’s only available to medical card holders,
2. It’s only available to adults,
3. People with more of a need are excluded
4. The time limit, as far as I’ve heard is 8 sessions, an apallingly low number. Before this, as I’ve been told by other service users, the HSE National Counselling Service provided up to 10 sessions.
I do not welcome this “change” at all. I truly believe MHR should be saying “although it’s better than nothing, this simply isn’t good enough” and demand more efficient, more inclusive primary care counselling services.
Shari McDaid
Thanks very much for your comment about the new Counselling in Primary Care service. You are correct to point out the limitations of the new service. Our priority has been to ensure that everyone has access to counselling/psychotherapy as a treatment option. The new service extends short-term counselling/psychotherapy to the almost 2 million people who have a medical card and previously would probably not have been able to afford counselling.
We do have concerns about the short-term nature of what is being provided and have said that in our press release. We are also concerned that people with more severe mental health difficulties are excluded from the service. These people who get treatment through the community mental health services often have long waiting lists to be able to get psychological therapies.
We will continue to advocate for wider access to counselling and psychotherapy.
Claire Carroll
Counselling in primary care is a wonderful initiative and much needed. I am so happy to see that progress is being made in this area and that wider access to counselling is a priority of MHR. Psychotherapy has proven scientific efficacy in treating mental illness and is less harmful than medications -the efficacy of which isn’t always so clear. The NHS has a wonderful programme called Beating the Blues which is a CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) based online programme which patients can be referred to via their GP which might also be interesting for the Irish services to consider. For people looking for counselling/CBT but finding it hard to afford, there is a free similar version called Mood Gym- see https://moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome. Also, regarding the limited sessions, it’s good to know that low cost counselling is available from psychotherapists in Ireland who are training and building up hours- if you’re interested have a look at http://www.pcicollege.ie/counselling-service/lowcostcounselling- and or other training colleges. Overall, I believe that these developments are so encouraging and that this kind of primary intervention is a wonderful departure. There is also a general move towards wellness and or happiness which represents an exciting opportunity for mental health services. Ireland could really set a benchmark; mindfulness, meditation, and other alternatives, all of which have proven efficacy in supporting mental health offer wonderful possibilities for the future. I hope that MHR will consider even more alternatives to traditional medical models and continue to support innovative, non-harmful approaches to treatment/prevention of mental illness.
Claire Bolger
I support the rolling out of counselling services and agree that 20 to 45 sessions should be available to clients and not just 6-8. Unfortunately by providing 6-8 sessions only there will be a move by managers as as happened in the NHS in Britain to perceived cost effective and time limited measures. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy or CBT has become the dominant counselling approach offered in the NHS because it fits this target driven model. However human beings are not targets. A wide variety of options of psychotherapy and counselling should be offered and available to clients as the document A Vision for Change has suggested which would be necessary to move away from a medicalised version of mental health. By offering 6-8 counselling sessions only there is a danger of moving right back to a medicalised version of mental health and a focus on reducing symtoms. Also if you wish to avail of other psychotherapy and counselling approachs such as Psychodynamic and Humanistic and not just th CBT/Behavioural model of counselling will you have to go privately or will it be offered to you in this Primary Care Counselling Service?