WELLINGTON CNTY.- Family Counselling Support Services for Guelph- Wellington is offering free, same-day counselling services in Mount Forest and Fergus.
Executive director Joanne Young Evans said the programs offer a much-needed resource for both Wellington County communities.
“We need to get more resources in this community where people can come and talk. This is open to everybody and anybody,” said Young Evans.
The organization started offering walk-in, one-on-one sessions on Mondays from 10:30am to 6pm at the Claire Stewart Clinic on Dublin Street in Mount Forest last week.
Starting Feb. 12, walk-in, one-on-one sessions will be held at the Centre Wellington District High School on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30 to 7pm.
Family Support Services has been offering walk-in sessions in Guelph for eight years with great success through funding it receives from United Way of Guelph Wellington Dufferin.
Now the organization has been able to expand to Fergus and Mount Forest, where it has satellite locations, thanks to funding from the Waterloo-Wellington LHIN.
“We’ve been wanting to offer it up here in Fergus and Mount Forest for a number of years and we were fortunate enough to get some one-time funding,” Young Evans said.
The walk-in sessions in Fergus and Mount Forest will continue until March 31, when the funding will cease.
However, Young Evans hopes the popularity of the walk-in sessions will help attract more funding for the program and allow it to continue in the future.
Mental health campaign
For now, the walk-in sessions are just one piece of a larger mental health awareness campaign that will launch over the next couple weeks by the CMHA, OPP and others across the county, said Young Evans.
Already, she said the response to the walk-in program, announced on Feb. 1, has been encouraging.
“It just shows the demand and the appetite in this community for more resources and we are thrilled,” said Young Evans.
