MWCH 25.004 Director of Counselling (National Counselling Services)

at  Mid West Community Healthcare

DETAILS OF SERVICE

The HSE National Counselling Service (NCS) provides a professional, confidential, counselling and psychotherapy service. It is available in all HSE regional areas and operates from over 240 locations throughout Ireland.
The aim of the NCS is to support clients to improve their quality of life and reduce their psychological distress through the provision of evidence-based, professional, client centred counselling.
The quantum of services provided by the NCS include provision of counselling to adults who have experienced childhood abuse, former residents of Mother and Baby Homes, individuals effected by issues in the cervical check screening programme, clients experiencing suicidal ideation/self-harm, bereavement, Covid specific emotional distress as well as the Counselling in Primary Care service (CIPC).
CIPC provides time limited counselling of up to 8 counselling sessions to adult General Medical Services (GMS) cardholders with mild to moderate psychological difficulties. Eligibility criteria for the service currently limit referrals to CIPC to patients holding valid GMS cards referred by their GP or Primary Care Practitioner. The CIPC model of service is aimed at providing early access to counselling.
The (CaPA) service (for adults who have experienced childhood abuse) is for moderate to severe psychological difficulties and offers medium to long term counselling contracts.
In 2021 the NCS began offering counselling to former residents of Mother and Baby Home Institutions as part of the Government agreed package of health and well-being measures.
The NCS fosters a client-centred holistic model of care based on best practice therapeutic models of clinical intervention both individual and group.
The NCS model of service includes provision of a comprehensive assessment of clients and different levels of counselling intervention depending on the nature and complexity of clients’ presenting issues. The HSE NCS provides short, medium and long term therapy contracts to clients presenting with mild, moderate and complex psychological difficulties.
Sharing the Vision (2020) Ireland’s National Mental Health policy endorses the importance of mental health provision to the overall health and well-being of Irish citizens, emphasising that “a range of counselling supports and talk therapies in community/primary care should be available on the basis of identified need so that all individuals…can receive prompt access to accessible care”. The NCS is key to the implementation of this objective and has played a crucial role in improving access to counselling in Ireland since September 2000.
The NCS has expanded and developed in response to growth in demand and the needs of clients. Recently the NCS responded quickly and flexibly to the COVID-19 pandemic and was proactive in managing demand for the service. The NCS immediately switched to telehealth provision offering clients Structured Telephone Counselling or Online Video Counselling when face to face appointments were no longer possible due to public health restrictions. The NCS continues to offer a blended model of service delivery which enhances the accessibility of the service.
The Development of HSE Adult Counselling Services: Future Planning Report (2015) which was produced following a strategic planning process by the NCS outlines a plan for the development of an expanded NCS service which would facilitate mental health service delivery within primary care as well as between primary and secondary care levels in line with the recommendations of the Sláintecare Report.
The HSE National Counselling Service is operational across the HSE nationally comprising 10 Services operating across all Community Health Organisations. Counselling clinics are located in every county in Ireland. The National Counselling Service is dedicated to offering clients a professional counselling/therapeutic service to alleviate psychological distress being experienced by adults. All the NCS counsellor therapists are fully qualified and are accredited with Professional Bodies.
The Sláintecare Report (2017) and Sláintecare Implementation Strategy (2018) signal a new direction for the delivery of health and social care services in Ireland with the potential to create a far more sustainable, equitable, cost effective system and one that delivers better value for patients and service users. At its core, the strategy focuses on establishing programmes of work to move to a community-led model, providing local populations with access to a comprehensive range of non-acute services at every stage of their lives. This will enable our healthcare system to provide care closer to home for patients and service users, to be more responsive to needs and deliver better outcomes, with a strong focus on prevention and population health improvement.
Internationally, the strategic repositioning of health services is recognised as a better approach to meet the challenges of escalating demand from an ageing population and the prevalence of chronic diseases, while at the same time ensuring better access to care, addressing inequalities in health and delivering sustainability and best value for population health.
Sláintecare sets out the need for the shift from the provision of care from acute to community settings, supporting the prevention and management of chronic disease at a community level. The strategic direction outlined in Sláintecare and the current provision of community services is underpinned by a number of strategies including Community Healthcare Organisations – Report and Recommendations of the Integrated Service Area Review Group, Healthy Ireland, Transforming Lives, The Irish National Dementia Strategy, Vision for Change, Connecting for Life – Ireland’s National Strategy to Reduce Suicide 2015-2020 and The National Carers’ Strategy – Recognised, Supported, Empowered. Sláintecare positions Community Healthcare Networks (CHNs) as the ‘fundamental unit of organisation for the delivery of services’ in the community. CHNs are geographically-based units delivering services to an average population of 50,000.
The implementation of CHNs will see a coordinated multi-disciplinary approach to care provision, providing better outcomes for people requiring services and supports both within and across networks. The development of CHNs is a critical step in transforming our healthcare system and will enable real change that will be experienced by all who use our services and work in the HSE.
In line with the on-going implementation of the CHO structure, the responsibility for services will lie with the appointed Heads of Service. The appointment of the Heads of Service, Heads of Business (Finance and Human Resources) continues to be a driving force in the integration of services for Health Service Reform.
The Health Service National Service Plan outlines the resource and performance accountability framework within which resources will be provided in. It set out the means by which the Hospital Groups and Community Healthcare Organisations (CHO’s), are held to account for their performance in relation to access to services, the quality and safety of those services within the financial resources available and effectively harnessing the efforts of the overall workforce.
The CHO Delivery Plans are prepared consistent with this framework and in line with related national policies, frameworks, performance targets, standards & resources. It sets out the type and volume of services which will be provided directly or through a range of agencies funded by us, and the actions which we will take to deliver on the goals of the HSE Corporate Plan over the course of the year. Our objective is to provide high quality, sustainable health care grounded in our values of Care, Compassion, Trust & Learning.
More information about the NCS can be obtained from: www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/MentalHealthServices/NationalCounsellingService/

Please refer the Job description for details