Generation III of V · Counselling
Genetic counselling
Genetic counselling gives you information and support around genetic testing, healthdirect explains, including while you are deciding whether to have a test. It can be given by a doctor or by an allied health professional, and allied health genetic counsellors are specially trained in both genetics and counselling.
General information, not medical advice. Call Triple Zero (000) in an emergency, or go to the emergency department of your nearest hospital. The official consumer page to check is healthdirect’s page on genetic testing.
Counselling aims
Who healthdirect says it is for
healthdirect says genetic counselling aims to give you information and support when you are:
- thinking about having a genetic test
- at risk of developing a genetic disease
- making decisions about your health.
That is healthdirect’s full list, from healthdirect’s page on genetic testing. It also says genetic counsellors can give advice and support if you are thinking about a test.
Interpretation
Why results need explaining
healthdirect lists results that may be hard to understand among the risks of genetic testing, and says that for understanding what a result means, you should talk to a doctor or a genetic counsellor. It is best to see one of them before a test, too, if you are thinking about having one.
Ahpra keeps a public list called the Register of practitioners, and when a health practitioner’s name is on it, they are allowed to practise. To check a doctor’s registration, search Ahpra’s register of practitioners.
Counselling stages
Counselling around a test
The official pages do not describe a counselling session step by step, but they do say what matters at each point around a test.
- Preparation
healthdirect says it is important to think through, before the test, what a result would mean for you and for your family.
It names what is at stake: results can affect your health choices and some decisions your family may make, there are risks to privacy, and results can be hard to understand.
- Consent
Consent is part of the process too. The federal health department points to the National Model of Consent for Clinical Genomic Testing, which sets a consistent, standard approach to consent for genomic testing. It was developed by the NSW Ministry of Health for the former Australian Health Minister’s Advisory Council’s Project Reference Group on Health Genomics. Under privacy law, the OAIC explains, genetic information is health information where it is, or could be, predictive of someone’s health or a genetic relative’s, and otherwise sensitive information; sensitive information generally gets more privacy protection than other personal information.
- The result
healthdirect calls the test only the first part, and says the important part is understanding what the results mean. It describes the main benefit of testing as knowledge, because after a test you can get advice on what your result means.
- Follow-up
A result still needs reading with care: healthdirect says a positive result for a mutation does not always lead to the disease that gene is linked with. Results and your family covers what a result can mean for the people you are related to.