That Australia’s healthcare system is under chronic stress – and has been even without the weight of COVID-19 – is no surprise to the counselling profession. Along with other frontline health professionals, counsellors and psychotherapists grapple daily with the workload and emotional pressures of trying to improve health outcomes for people in a system in which demand for services far outstrips supply.

The challenge nonetheless is to try and find answers to the obvious questions: Can we do more with less? Are there technology or practice innovations that can help?
Answering questions like these requires the deepest possible understanding of the factors determining the demand–supply equation as well as possible solutions. With such a system overload, we need better solutions, including a more effective use of the available workforce.

To this end, the Australian Counselling Association commissioned an independent report, Trends in Australia’s psychological services workforce: some implications for Better Access.

The objective in the first instance is to explore short-term treatments to improve mental health outcomes for people with common mental disorders. In this edition of the CA journal, we summarise the key findings and interview author Alistair Davidson.

As members know, the Australian Government subsidises short-term treatments under its Better Access initiative, but this is struggling to meet demand due to workforce shortages and other systemic reasons.

So, clearly, we need to improve the situation and explore the extent to which we can better use the professional workforce that we do have.
Healthcare generally requires a holistic approach to patient and client care, with medical and mental health issues often overlapping. So counsellors and psychotherapists will not be the sole answer to the system’s shortcomings. But they are a crucial part of the desired solution and we need to ensure this is both recognised and established in practice.

I am always reinforcing the importance of multidisciplinary teams – a community of professionals – that can leverage a cross-section of skill and experience to maximise mental health and wellbeing outcomes and more fully support people with mental illness or life challenges.

This edition is especially dedicated to those counsellors and psychotherapists who are contributing to, and often leading the way, in this collegiate endeavour aimed at supporting the whole of the community.

I will be delighted to hear and learn from you at the ACA Conference this September in Sydney – visit theaca.net.au/conference.php for more information. ■