A survey of general practitioners in north-east Scotland on practice-based counselling services.

Objective: Practice-based counselors have become very numerous in primary care and we sought to elicit the views of general practitioners in north-east Scotland about the present situation and possible developments in practice-based counselling services.

Design And Subjects: A questionnaire was mailed to the 352 general practitioners working in the area covered by Grampian Health Board.

Results: There was a 74% response rate: 46% of respondents had access to a practice-based counsellor and of those who did not, two-thirds wanted to acquire one. Larger practices and fundholding practices were more likely to have practice-based counsellors. There was a lack of knowledge about the medico-legal situation when referrals to counsellors were made. Seventy-nine per cent of respondents thought that the need/demand for counselling would increase during the next decade, and a majority considered provision of counselling through mental health teams, with local co-ordination of accreditation, training and supervision, to be desirable.

Conclusion: Since the efficacy of counselling for mental health problems in primary care has not been established, and provision of counselling in primary care settings continues to increase, there is a need to mount coherent and appropriate research studies. There also appears to be a need for greater integration between primary care and mental health services to generate rational provision of practice-based counselling.