- \n
- couples wait about six years before getting help<\/li>\n
- information from health professionals, followed by the internet and books are the most commonly cited sources of useful information by peolpe seeking information about their health<\/li>\n
- information provided by health professionals has been associated with the most positive satisfaction ratings when compared to other commonly cited sources of information<\/li>\n
- The type of information that receives the most favourable endorsement by people seeking information about their health condition varies by age, race, education and location<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Results <\/h2>\n
Almost 2,200 people responded to the Relationships Australia online survey in June 2016, with just under four-fifths of survey respondents (79%) identifying as female.<\/p>\n
As was the case for last month\u2019s survey, more females than males responded in every age group (figure 1).\u00a0 Almost ninety per cent of survey respondents were aged between 20\u201159 years, with the highest number of responses collected for women aged between 30-39 years (inclusive).<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/June2016surveyfigure1.gif\")
<\/p>\nThe demographic profile of survey respondents remains consistent with our experience of the people that would be accessing the Relationships Australia website.<\/p>\n
A substantial majority of men (86%) and women (93%) survey respondents reported that they had considered counselling, but not all were currently attending or had previously attended.\u00a0 More than 17\u00a0per\u00a0cent of women and 13 per cent of men were currently attending counselling, while more than half of women (53%) and just under half of men (48%) had attended counselling in the past (figure 2).<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/June2016surveyfigure2.gif\")
<\/p>\nSurvey respondent were asked how they would conduct research to find a counsellor (figure 3).\u00a0 Women were most likely to report that they would rely on recommendations from another service such as a doctor or health professional (49%) or online research (41%) to find a counsellor.\u00a0 Men were most likely to report online research (45%) or secondly a recommendation from another service (35%) such as a doctor or health professional as the main sources of information for locating a counsellor.\u00a0 The third most popular source of information cited by men for finding a counsellor was a recommendation from a friend or relative (24%).\u00a0 Women were most likely to report a recommendation from another servcie such as a doctor or health professional (49%), followed by online searching (41%) and then a recommendation from a friend or relative (30%).<\/p>\n
Thirteen per cent of survey respondents reported that they would speak to the service, while fewer than eight per cent would source written materials such as brochures and booklets.\u00a0 Fewer than eight per cent of survey respondents would not or did not conduct research to find a counsellor. \u00a0Women were more likely to conduct research from multiple sources than men.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/June2016surveyfigure3.gif\")
<\/p>\nThere were no significant differences between the reports of men and women when they were asked about the availability of information needed to select a counsellor.\u00a0 Half of survey respondents (49%) reported that the information they needed to select a counsellor was available to them.\u00a0 A further 14 per cent reported that this information was not available to them, and 21 per cent were not sure if this information was available to them.<\/p>\n
Women were less confident than men of their knowledge of what questions to ask a counsellor to determine whether they had selected the right person.\u00a0 Forty-eight per cent of women and 41 per cent of men reported that they did not know what questions to ask their counsellor.\u00a0 Around one-sixth of survey respondents (14%) were not sure whether they knew what questions to ask their counsellor, while a further one-fifth (20%) reported that they knew what questions to ask their counsellor to make sure they had selected the right person. \u00a0Just under 20 per cent of survey respondents reported that they had never seen a counsellor.<\/p>\n
Fifty per cent of survey respondents who had attended counselling reported that, after the first session, they believed they had selected the right person.\u00a0 More than one-fifth (21%) reported that they didn\u2019t belive they had selected the right person, while a further one-third (29%) reported that they were unsure as to whether they had selected the right person.<\/p>\n
Overall, a substantial majority (71%) of survey respondents who had seen a counsellor reported that it was a worthwhile experience for them.\u00a0 One-sixth (15%) reported that it was not a worthwhile experience, while a further one-sixth (14%) were undecided whether seeing a counsellor was a worthwhile experience for them.<\/p>\n
References <\/h2>\n
Holdsworth, E, Bowen, E, Brown, S and Howat, D, 2014, Client engagement in psychotherapeutic treatment and associations with client characteristics, therapist characteristics, and treatment factors, Clinical Psychology Review, Volume 34 (5)<\/p>\n
Gilbert, SM, Sanda, MG, Dunn, RL, Greenfield, TK, Hembroff, L, Klein, E, Saigal, CS, Pisters, L, Michalski, J, Sandler, HM, Litwin, M, Wei, JT, 2013, Satisfaction with information used to choose prostate cancer treatment. J Urol. 2014 May;191(5):1265-71.<\/p>\n
Owen, J,\u00a0 Smith, A and Rodolfa, E, 2009, Clients’ Expected Number of Counseling Sessions, Treatment Effectiveness, and Termination Status: Using Empirical Evidence to Inform Session Limit Policies, Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, Volume 23(2):118-134<\/p>\n
Petch, J, Lee, J, Huntingdon, B, and Murray, J, 2014, Couple Counselling Outcomes in an Australian Not for Profit: Evidence for the Effectiveness of Couple Counselling Conducted Within Routine Practice, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 35:445\u2013461<\/p>\n
Acknowledgement<\/h3>\n
Relationships Australia acknowledges the assistance of Mentally Friendly in developing the questions for this month\u2019s survey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction The reasons why some people choose to seek assistance through counselling while others do not are many and varied, but in order for clients to reap the most benefit from counselling it is important for them to choose the right therapist. People seek information to inform their choice of counsellor from different sources. \u00a0Commonly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[27,6],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-224404","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","category-research","category-surveys","tag-relationships"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/224404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/224404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231041,"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/224404\/revisions\/231041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}