Mental heath services open to walk-ins
Walk in and get same-day, in depth mental health counselling.
It’s coming to St. Catharines one day a week, every Tuesday starting July 11 at the new Branscombe Mental Health Centre on Fourth Avenue.
The idea is to catch people when they’re most ready and keen to make a change in their lives, rather than making them wait for weeks, said Mary Barzyk-Livingston, clinical education manager at the Canadian Mental Health Association Niagara.
“It gets people at the time of need,” said Barzyk-Livingston. “You need to get people when they’re ready to talk.”
Previously, people in need of counselling were put on a wait list of up to six months. Statistics show that when people are put on a waiting list, half don’t show up for their appointment, she said. They lose interest, or many times their condition worsens to the point of needing more intensive care.
Counsellors can help as many as four times the number of people during walk-in sessions, than if they had an appointment, she said.
The walk-in service is for people 16 and older who need immediate help problem solving. People who are feeling overwhelmed by a problem in their life and are ready and motivated to make a change.
Maybe they’re having marriage problems or going through a separation. Maybe they’re out of work, or dealing with financial struggles. They might be feeling anxious, or depressed.
Whatever the problem, they’re ready to make a change but need someone to listen to their story. They are not at immediate risk of hurting themselves. It is not meant for people who are experiencing severe mental health symptoms or who are in crisis.
If a person shows up requiring more care, they are taken to somewhere safe like the hospital or the CMHA’s urgent care counselling service.
The walk-in counselling service runs 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; the last session begins at 5:30 p.m. In addition to Tuesdays in St. Catharines, walk-in counselling is available in Niagara Falls every Wednesday and Fort Erie on Thursdays.
At the walk-in service, a mental health counsellor spends time oneon-one with them, often exploring issues from their past. One session – and usually that’s all that’s needed – can take more than an hour. In mental health speak, it’s called narrative therapy and it’s about having a conversation that helps people understand the reasons for feeling overwhelmed, identifies their strengths, and then comes up with a plan for change.
When they arrive, the problem seems bigger than life. “That’s your identity,” she said. Counselling helps people realize their life is made up of many other stories.
“You have other stories of competency and belonging,” she said.
“It’s our job to pull those out.
“We are pulling from the inventory of your life. This is part of your story.”
When that happens, they can begin to connect with the person they were before the problem.
Karen Robson is one of the mental health counsellors. “They find their strengths to overpower what they thought were their weaknesses,” she said. “We build people.” People often feel like their lives are a collection of “broken pieces that didn’t fit anywhere,” said Barzyk-Livingston.
“And now they’ve been put together into a beautiful mosaic.”