More than 5,000 people have backed our campaign urging the Government to maximise the role of counselling and psychotherapy in supporting the nation through the coronavirus crisis.
Several professional bodies and membership groups including the National Counselling Society (NCS), Cosca and Northern Ireland Counselling Forum, as well as the Association for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the National Health Service (APP), WPF Therapy, the PPR, Tavistock Relationships, the Association of Christian Counsellors and Association of Child Psychotherapists have also added their voices to the campaign.
Add your voice
Suky Kaur, our Head of Policy, said: “We’re delighted our campaign has received more than 5,000 signatures in its first weekend.
“We would encourage as many people as possible to add their voice to the campaign to send a clear message to the governments across the UK that the role of counsellors and psychotherapists is now more important than ever.
“Counsellors and psychotherapists are playing key roles in this crisis, and the need for therapeutic support is only going to increase.
“We want to ensure that the UK’s governments maximise the role of counselling and psychotherapy in helping to steer the nation through this crisis and in rebuilding and helping people to return to normality."
Policy proposals
Our campaign, launched last week with UKCP and BPC, calls on the Government to adopt three new policy proposals:
- Working with us to ensure there is a workforce to deliver a comprehensive mental health response to the crisis.
- Tackling labour market barriers.
- Signposting the public to the very best mental health support.
We've written to the UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock MP, and equivalent Health Ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to reaffirm the critical role counselling and psychotherapy needs to play in helping to support people through the crisis, and afterwards as part of the important effort to rebuild. Read our letter.
How you can help
We’re 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.
Sign our petition calling on Government to maximise the role of counselling and psychotherapy in helping to support people through the current crisis and beyond.