B. Bartlam et J. Mcleod, Infertility Counselling: the ISSUE experience of setting up a telephone counselling service, PAT EDUC C, 41(3), 2000, pp. 313-321
Citations number
31
Categorie Soggetti
Public Health & Health Care Science","Envirnomentale Medicine & Public Health
This paper explores the role of telephone counselling for people experienci
ng fertility problems. It examines the first nine months of the evening tel
ephone counselling service offered by ISSUE (The National Fertility Associa
tion). Records of the service were analysed for number, duration and nature
of calls. The results suggest that there is significant demand for such a
service and that this demand has grown in line with availability. All couns
ellors working on the service were interviewed. Qualitative analysis of the
interviews generated key themes concerning gender and culture, supervision
and training, counselling process issues, boundaries and managerial issues
. In addition, specific issues about counselling in the field of reproducti
ve medicine were highlighted. Findings are discussed in relation to implica
tions for service provision in this area of health care. (C) 2000 Elsevier
Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.