Counselling

Overview

Counselling Services in Community Health Services (CHSs) aim to improve well-being in the community by offering supportive counselling, therapy, practical support, advocacy and referral and linkage to other services as needed.

Services can be provided on a one-to-one basis and in groups to adults, adolescents, children and families. The aim is to ensure that all Victorians have access to affordable, effective counselling that is physically accessible, and culturally appropriate.

CHS Counselling Services can assist with a wide range of issues, for example family and relationship issues, coping with chronic illness, depression, anxiety and related conditions.

A list of contact information and locations of Community Health Services is available to help you locate your local CHS.

Expenditure on CHS Counselling Services in 2005-06 is approximately $16 million. In addition, many CHSs receive funding from other Department of Human Services or Australian Government programs to provide specialised counselling including alcohol and other drug, problem gambling, financial counselling, family support, and family violence. Some specialist mental health services are co-located with CHSs. All of these arrangements support better integration and coordination of counselling services at a local level.

In 2004-05, CHS Counselling Services provided 248,667 'occasions of service' to approximately 48,200 people. The most common problems were depression, anxiety and family and relationship difficulties.

Quality improvement

Recognising the burden of common mental health and social problems, such as depression and anxiety, the Victorian Government committed an additional $10.6 million over 3 years from 2000, to a program of service expansion and improvement of CHS Counselling Services. Services were expanded and a Review of Counselling Services in CHSs was conducted which informed a number of service quality improvements.

Review of counselling services in community health services

The Review informed initiatives to improve the specification and quality of Counselling Services in CHSs and was conducted in two stages.

Stage One
The findings of the review are explained in the Stage One report Review of Counselling Services in Community Health Discussion Paper (DHS, 2002). This report also outlined emerging themes and policy directions for Community Health Program funded counselling services.

Review of counselling services in community health: A discussion paper (262kb, pdf)

As a result of the findings from Stage One a number of initiatives were undertaken including:

• projects to increase access and quality of counselling provided in rural areas,
• counselling services in each region received additional funding for expansion
• minor works grants were provided to improve the physical infrastructure of counselling facilities in CHSs
• leadership initiatives were conducted in all regions to sustain improved practices in counselling services by building local networks to discuss ‘best practice’
• a policy paper, Foundations for prim6 April, 20092004), was produced to improve coordination and collaboration between state and Commonwealth departments with responsibility for primary mental health initiatives.

Foundations for primary care mental health treatment services in Victoria - summary and full report

Stage Two
Stage Two of the Review focused on planning for the future, producing a public consultation draft. 'Counselling in Community Health Services: Future directions and guidelines for quality counselling'. 'Future Directions' also includes draft guidelines that were developed after extensive consultation with stakeholders.

Counselling in Community Health Services: Future directions and guidelines for quality counselling (389kb, pdf)

Counselling services policy

Community Health Counselling: Policy Framework and Program Standards is the final policy following the review of counselling services in community health. It profiles community health counselling as a significant contributor to community and individual well being, with particular emphasis on the disadvantaged. This policy is the culmination of several years of activities to improve the specification, quality and future directions of counselling in community health services.

Community health counselling - Policy framework and program standards (979kb, pdf)

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Consultation on ’Future Directions’

Public consultations were held between March and July 2005. Thirty-eight submissions were also received from Community Health Services, General Practice Divisions, Mental Health Services and Alcohol & Drug Services.

Those agencies and networks that provided written feedback were invited to a series of focus groups that were held in November 2005 to explore the main themes in the feedback. The focus groups were well attended, with representatives from Community Health Services, Mental Health Services, General Practice Divisions and registration boards. The outcomes from the consultations, written submissions and focus groups will inform the development of the final version of the policy paper.

Grants to demonstrate implementation of ‘Future Directions’ guidelines

A submission process was held in late 2005 to select ten Community Health Services to test each of the five key guidelines.

There were 36 submissions in total, 24 from rural regions and 12 from metropolitan regions. Due to the high level of enthusiasm demonstrated in the submissions from rural areas, five additional rural project proposals received funding. These projects proposed innovative service development consistent with Future Directions in regional and rural settings.

Attached below is a list of participating services. More information about these projects will be posted on the website in the near future.

Future Directions Implementation Projects (27kb, MS word)

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Current & new initiatives

A range of current or new initiatives have been guided by the directions outlined in ‘Future Directions’, as follows:

Regional Community Health Counsellor’s forums
During 2005-06 each of the eight Department of Human Services Regions selected a Community Health Service to host three regional forums each year for Community Health (CH) Counsellors.

The forums are theme based, for example depression or working with families, and typically include a knowledgeable guest speaker, time for workshopping the theme of the day, presentations from participating services and discussion time.

The forums provide an opportunity for services to showcase research and innovative approaches to service delivery and enable networking between counsellors.

The forums aim to support the implementation and sustainability of service improvements throughout each region and encourage enthusiastic, innovative approaches to counselling.

Single Session Work project
The Counselling Review recommended training in Single Session Work (SSW) for CH Counsellors. SSW is an evidence-based approach that increases responsiveness to client needs and assists services to manage demand. SSW promotes making the most of the first contact, whilst setting up options for further work if necessary.

During 2004-05 training in SSW was offered to CH Counsellors in rural and metropolitan locations throughout Victoria.

The training was conducted by The Bouverie Centre, a state-wide, integrated academic-clinical service, located within the Faculty of Health Sciences at La Trobe University. Add external attachment to Bouverie website.

The project was extended to include implementation support to CHSs wishing to incorporate SSW into their counselling services and SSW training for Alcohol and Drug Workers and Problem Gambling Counsellors based in CHSs.

The project also includes an action research component. Bouverie will work with, and provide support to CHSs wishing to participate in the research. An action research framework will be developed to collate and analyse collected data.

The research framework will guide CHSs to actively monitor and map changes in their counselling services resulting from SSW. CHSs will collect pre and post implementation data to inform changes to waiting lists, client throughput and the number of sessions attended by clients.

Family therapy skills training for community health counsellors
Family therapy skills training will be offered to CH Counsellors during 2006. The training will be held in regional and metropolitan locations throughout Victoria. The training is aimed at providing CH Counsellors with strategies to increase effectiveness in working with families.

Clinical Supervision training
Training in Clinical Supervision will be offered during 2006 to senior experienced CH Counsellors. This project will include consultation with CHS management and counsellors about their views and preferences with regard to the provision of clinical supervision. The purpose of this project is to support the provision of high quality effective counselling in CHSs.

Further information

For further information please contact:
Catherine James (Catherine.James@dhs.vic.gov.au)
Primary Health Branch
Department of Human Services
Enquiries
Tel: (61 3) 9096 8762
Fax: (61 3) 9096 8277

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