Preventive psychological care for the physically ill

Abstract

There has been a call for the expansion of psychological and counselling services in general medicine. However, it is often the case that those who would make use of such services have a poor understanding of the nature of psychological therapy and counselling. This can lead to misuse. Consequently, with any such developments there has to be a parallel programme to educate the health care professionals who are likely to use psychological and counselling services. One of the key targets in such education will be the recognition that preventive psychological care procedures can do much to reduce the number of ‘psychological casualties’ arising from illness and accident. Thus, while trying to advance counselling services in medical settings, there should also be a parallel effort to introduce basic, preventive psychological care in order to avert the circumstances which often provoke a need for counselling. An outline of a scheme of preventive psychological care is presented, together with comments on its implementation and performance in a renal unit.