AT-A-GLANCE
Adults and couples living in the Cariboo-Chilcotin area.
COVID-19 Surge Fund
What This Grantee Is Doing for Community Counselling
CMHA Cariboo-Chilcotin offers an free online and in-person Crisis and Counselling Program to individuals and couples on a short-term, 10-session basis. CAI COVID-19 Surge funding supports the addition of a registered counsellor to the CMHA Cariboo-Chilcotin staff team for 5 hours a week to provide additional counselling services. Counsellors see clients with mild to moderate counselling needs, including:
- anger
- anxiety
- brain injury
- boundaries
- depression
- grief
- homelessness
- isolation and loneliness
- stress
- suicide
- wildfire-related stress
Since receiving the CAI COVID-19 Surge Grant, CMHA Cariboo-Chilcotin has scaled up their delivery of virtual services to reach people who have been isolated due to COVID-19 or who have transportation challenges that are a barrier for them to participate in counselling.
Quote
"The most significant impact of the COVID Surge funding has been no wait time for people to access counselling services. Before we received this funding, our waitlist was 4 months. It relieves the stress from staff when clients can be seen in a timely manner. When clients must wait, there is a risk of suicide, which weighs heavily on the counsellors and adds a lot of stress and pressure to already overworked staff. This funding allows the counsellors to focus on the clients they have in front of them and not worry about clearing the waitlist."