We鈥檙e building a coalition of professional bodies, service providers, trainers and individual therapists urging the Government to maximise the role of counselling and psychotherapy in supporting the nation through the coronavirus crisis.
We're writing to the UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock MP, and equivalent Health Ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to reaffirm the critical role that counselling and psychotherapy needs to play in helping to support people through the crisis, and afterwards as part of the important effort to rebuild.
We'd like you to add your voice to this important campaign.
Unprecedented crisis
Our chair Natalie Bailey said: 鈥淭his is an unprecedented health and economic crisis that threatens to affect the mental health and wellbeing of large numbers of people in the country.
鈥淭he role of professional therapists is now more important than ever as people come to terms with the mental health impact of illness, bereavement, isolation, insecurity, changing work and family circumstances and general anxiety at such an uncertain time.
Vital role
鈥淢any counsellors and psychotherapists are already playing a vital role on the front line of this epidemic, supporting the most vulnerable people, including medical staff and other key workers who are struggling with their own mental health.
鈥淎s the crisis grows, the need for urgent therapeutic support will only increase and professional therapists will also be critical in the longer-term, in rebuilding the fabric of the nation and helping people to return to normality.
鈥淲e鈥檙e keen to do all we can to work with Government to ensure these needs are met.鈥�
Policy proposals
The coalition is made up of more than 85,000 highly trained, professional and flexible counsellors and psychotherapists working at the forefront of the mental health sector across a range of modalities.
We're calling on the UK Governments to adopt three new policy proposals, which aim to maximise the role of counselling and psychotherapy in helping support the nation through this challenging crisis:
- Work with us to develop a clear action plan to deliver a comprehensive mental health response to COVID-19.
- Tackle labour market barriers - therapists can only help others if they are better supported.
- Signpost the public to the very best mental health support.
How you can help
We鈥檙e encouraging all counsellors, service providers, third sector partners and members of the public to show support by signing our letter as well as sharing with colleagues, employers, family members and friends.
We hope this will encourage all the Governments across the UK to help maximise the role of counselling and psychotherapy in helping tackle the growing mental health needs and to help the nation respond through this challenging crisis.
calling on Government to maximise the role of counselling and psychotherapy in helping to support people through the current crisis and beyond.