Therapy culture? Attitudes towards emotional support in Britain 163

proportion (16 per cent) who have ever spoken to a ‘talk-based’ professional
(that is, a psychologist, psychiatrist, counsellor or therapist). The discrepancy
between these two sources of advice and support is even greater if we focus
only on those who have sought support in the last year; while two in ten have
spoken to their GP, only six per cent have spoken to a talk-based professional.
Table 7.4 Contact with formal emotional support – ever and in the last year
% contact ever % contact in last year
GP 31 19
Psychologist 2 1
Psychiatrist 4 2
Therapist or counsellor (in person) 13 4
Therapist or counsellor (by telephone) 2 1
Someone from a support service who is
trained to help people or to listen 3 1
Social worker or care worker 2 2
Minister/priest/other religious leader 4 2
Some other kind of professional 2 1
Any of the above 40 25
Base: 2102

So among the population as a whole, then, we have found little evidence of a
widespread involvement in formal emotional support. But does this hold true
across different groups within the population or are some much more likely than
others to have turned to these sources of support?
In terms of age, the pattern across the first three age groups is generally what
one might expect: experience accumulates with age. This is shown in Figure
7.2. What is striking, however, is the way that the use of all types of formal
support (but especially those associated with the talking therapies) drops
sharply among those in the oldest age group. In other words, there appears to be
something fundamentally different about the experiences (and, as we have seen,
attitudes) of the pre-war generation. However, the pattern is slightly different
for contact with GPs and for ‘talk-based’ professionals. Older people’s
relationships with their GP is often rather different from that of young people –
partly because they tend to experience poorer health and so simply see their GP
more often, but also because they are more likely to have built up a relationship
with their GP over a number of years. So it is perhaps not surprising that the
fall-off in use of GP services for emotional support among the 60-plus age
group is less pronounced. It is clear, however, that older people are markedly
less likely than younger age groups to have contact with professionals from the
‘talk-based’ therapies. It is also noticeable that those in the youngest age group
are significantly less likely than the oldest to have sought support from their
GP, but much more likely to have experienced talk-based therapy of some kind.
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