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Free counselling for low income families published their Delivery Report!9 months ago
Free community based counselling in Blacon and Lache for those in low income families; adults, children and young people who are experiencing mental health issues.
Without being properly addressed, mental health problems can leave people disadvantaged throughout their life. More people than ever need help and NHS services are overloaded and unable to cope with the increase in demand. Those who can't afford to pay for private therapy end up struggling on alone. We offer free client counselling & art/play therapy in Blacon and Lache, working in venues such as schools and community centres that are local and easy for clients to get to. We're family focused and recognise that parental trauma and adversity can have a profound affect on children. As a result, we sometimes work with more than one member of a family to affect change. We use a person centred approach, recognising that every client's needs and challenges are different. Therapy isn't time limited and our focus is on helping clients achieve real long-term healing rather than just temporary symptom reduction. We've been described as a priceless resource by clients and referrers.
What we'll deliver:
Why it's a great idea:
There's an inextricable link between poverty and poor mental health and those in this situation are often the least likely to be able to access help. Our service works to address this in Blacon and Lache and help one or more family members address mental health issues. We know that positive changes in one person's mental health can have significant benefits for the rest of their family, amplifying the impact of our service by 3-4x. Feedback from clients suggests counselling has led to specific changes in their lives including:- building more positive family/peer relationships, leaving difficult and abusive relationships, accessing education when they've previously not been able to, seeking diagnoses for additional needs, making successful transitions from primary to high school, applying for work, feeling more able to take on other responsibilities in the workplace and feeling more able to cope with other challenges in their life.
Steps to get it done:
Journey
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Brilliant news, thanks everyone!
Whoop, 90 people have pledged since fundraising began!
How will the money be spent?Target (inc. fees) £25,118
Costs Breakdown
This shows how money raised for the project will be spent. These costs have been confirmed by the project's Delivery Manager and verified.
Overfunding
This project is enabled for overfunding. If the project hits its funding goal before the end of the campaign period, any extra funds raised will be spent (in order of priority) on:
Target (inc. fees) £25,118
Our Volunteer List
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VolunteerWe're a Chester based charity offering counselling and art/play therapy support to children, young people and parents/carers living in relative poverty and experiencing mental health issues.
Our focus is on strengthening family relationships and creating more stable and nurturing environments for children. Our aim is to stop the cycle of poor mental health being passed down from one generation to the next and through early intervention to prevent it becoming a life-long disability.
“My mental health has improved more than I could have hoped for. These sessions have changed not only my life but my son’s too, as I'm now strong enough to provide what we both need. “ Adult
We accept referrals from schools (who can also refer parent/carers of pupils), GPs, health visitors, midwives and other community based agencies and charities who our clients interact with. As part of our family focused approach, we offer all referrers the opportunity to make referrals for children and young people, as well as parents and carers. There is also an option for parents/carers to refer themselves or another family member directly into our service. Clients present with a range of mild to more complex mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicidal ideation, behavioural issues, low self-esteem, stress and sleep disturbances.
Our charity has been referred to as a priceless resource and our service is designed to make it as easy as possible for those who fall through the net of mainstream mental health services and can't afford private therapy, to get the help they need for themselves and/or other members of their family.
When we receive a referral we make contact with a client as quickly as possible to tell them a bit more about our service and the process in terms of them being allocated a therapist.
Our aim is to build a relationship of trust with them as soon as they are referred, that can then carry on into their work with a counsellor.
“Flexible, easy to contact and very supportive. Only service I know of that offers this outstanding, quality support.” School referrer
Our therapists are qualified to Degree or Masters level in counselling and/or art/play therapy and have experience of working successfully with clients living with multiple challenges. We believe this level of qualification and experience is essential as the clients we work with are often living with multiple challenges and have suffered significant trauma.
Project Owner: Platform for Life The Project Owner takes legal responsibility for receiving and spending the funds raised and ensuring the project is delivered.
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