WORK pressures and social strains on staff at Dorset County Council are leading to increasing demand for counselling.

The number of staff referring themselves for counselling each year has risen from 120 last year to between 170 and 200 this year.

The county council is the biggest employer in Dorset, with more than 13,500 employees.

There is just one counsellor undertaking the counselling and therapy service and there is now a call for better funding to cope with the demand.

The council's head of human resources Rowland Hartle said: "Demand is rising as the world gets ever more complicated and people need more and more support.

"It may be caused by an increase in performance targets or focus on sickness absence in part, and of course, who knows what issues there are in outer communities that could be affecting it."

Alan Martin, regional organiser of Unison, the trade union for people in public services, explained that as demand increases for the counsellor, she too could feel the increased pressures being felt by her clients.

He said: "If ever there was a case of someone being overworked it's in the counselling services. We would certainly support the county council's request for additional funding in this area."

He added: "People who work for the county council are often providing extremely important frontline services and often see very distressing cases.

"Individuals are under extreme pressure because vacant jobs aren't always quickly filled and that can have an impact on staff.

"You have many people who can only get their job done by working additional hours for no pay, putting a strain on them and their families."

At a meeting of the corporate services and policy development committee Elaine Taylor, director of corporate services, requested that the counselling service budget be increased.

Mrs Taylor and Mr Hartle both emphasised the need for financial support of the counselling services in order to provide for the needs of council employees, as well as to keep down sickness absence.

A report released last year showed that full-time members of staff at the county council were taking an average of more than 10 sick days a year, costing the council nearly £7 million.