Research and Evaluation

Abstract

Counselling can be an expensive resource compared with other treatments such as medical or behavioural approaches. Talking treatments require more time and often more resources, for example, the provision of a consistent protected environment, such as a room set aside specifically for counselling. In order to give open support for working in this way, employers or managers will usually require some evidence that it is an effective use of time and resources. This requirement is even more significant in the climate of increased division between the purchasers and the providers of services. Purchasers have to weigh up how best to spend limited budgets, whilst often remaining at a distance from the ‘hands on’ work. Therefore one important reason for carrying out research is to provide the evidence that one’s intervention is a productive and worthwhile use of limited resources. Evidence-based practice is an integral aspect of Clinical Governance, the process by which service quality is addressed from several perspectives.