Primary care is continuing to shoulder the burden of treating patients with mental health problems. While primary care counsellors are often considered to be poorly trained and underqualified, this opinion is based on previous surveys that have not focused primarily on counsellors themselves.
This new paper challenges that poor view of counsellors. As the first national survey to examine specifically practice counsellors’ qualifications, experience and working practices, the authors found that the vast majority are in fact very well trained and supervised, and meet the criteria set out by national regulatory bodies.
