Cobourg’s Northumberland Hills Hospital (NHH) opened a new mental health walk-in location in an effort to address long wait times.
According to Scott Pipin, the community mental health director for Northumberland Hills Hospital, the average wait time for a person to get access to a mental health therapist is six months to a year. Pipin says when they saw their wait times approaching this level, they decided to act.
Two weeks ago, they opened an off-site mental health walk-in counselling centre in a shopping plaza on Elgin Street West, set up so those coming in will see a therapist within minutes.
“You’re going to see a case manager, just to see what’s going on,” Pipin said. “Won’t be long. Then we’ll get you directly into a therapist, and you are going to have that one-on-one session.”
In the first two weeks, operating only two days a week, they had 85 visits.
They work in partnership with another service, the Northumberland Community Counselling Centre.
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Executive Director of the Northumberland Community Counselling Centre, Janet Irvine says demand for mental health counselling has a lot to do with people realizing the need to discuss mental health issues with a professional.
“The Bell ‘Let’s Talk’ program and others have really increased people’s confidence in being able to call and say ‘I need some help,'” said Irvine
Jennifer Cox, clinical manager, NHH Community Mental Health Services, says it’s vital to recognize it as important to get prompt help for mental health issues as physical health ones.
“It’s like anything in health care, if you left your sore throat too long, then it would get a lot worse, right? If you leave your symptoms of anxiety or depression too long, they become harder to manage,” said Cox.
The six-month pilot project is being funded from existing financial resources at NHH.