Aims: People affected by cancer often experience distress and suffer emotional morbidity. There are barriers to accessing professional counselling services, particularly for people located in regional areas. Cancer Council Western Australia’s (CCWA) Counselling Network Program (CNP) provides access to affordable, short-term counselling throughout WA. Cancer patients, caregivers or family members are eligible for referral into the program through CCWA Regional Cancer Support Coordinators (CSCs) or other pathways. The aim of this evaluation was to explore clients’ satisfaction with and the perceived benefits of the CNP as a function of referral pathway (‘CSC-referred’ compared to referral by another source ‘other-referred’).

Methods: All clientswho received one or more counselling session(s) in the 2013/2014 financial year received a self-report questionnaire by mail (n=431). 120 questionnaires were returned (28% response rate).

Results: The mean age of respondents was 56.6 years (SD = 16.3) and the majority were female (75%). Forty-six percent of respondents were referred by a CSC with the majority of these residing in a regional area (92%), and 54% were referred by other sources including CCWA 131120, counsellors, external organisations and health services. A greater proportion of CSC-referred clients reported being satisfied that counselling addressed their needs (98%) compared to other-referred clients (83%), χ²= 4.99, p = .03. A larger proportion of CSC-referred clients agreed that they had a better understanding of their concerns (96.2%) and that their relationships with people close to them had improved (78.4%) compared to other-referred clients (understanding 78.9%) χ²= 7.19, p= .03 and (relationships 52.7%), χ²= 8.53, p= .03.

Conclusions: The evaluation suggests a positive association between referral pathway (through a CSC) and clients’ satisfaction with the service. The current referral structure appears to benefit regional clients, an often underserviced group. The particular elements of the pathway that may contribute to this effect require further investigation.