ABSTRACT
Economic evaluation is just one part of the overall evaluation of counselling in medical settings, but it is a very important part. The health service is the largest employer in the state sector with public money of £30 billion provided annually to pay for staff, facilities, equipment and patient care. While the principle of monitoring competence is an admirable one, no guidelines are given as to how counsellors, their employers and agencies should evaluate their work, other than supervision. Counsellors and researchers attempting to evaluate counselling and related psychological interventions should use a variety of techniques and measures incorporating qualitative and quantitative data. There are several types of economic evaluation, all of which can be applied to counselling in medical settings. The choice of technique depends upon the objectives of the evaluation and the time and money available for collecting data on effectiveness.
