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Increase in Family Service Help Available
 Everybody experiences tragic
losses, emotional distress, and difficult conflicts in
their lives. When these are totally disabling, help is
usually available through the publicly funded acute care
medical and mental health services. When these problems
are less than severely disabling, help is less
available. Family doctors often do not have sufficient
time and/or training to provide counseling and
therapeutic support. Mental health services are often
mandated to provide help, mainly, to severely ill or
disturbed patients. Hospitals are rarely funded or
equipped to deal with anything but acute care. Child and
family services are normally focused on young persons
and parenting problems. Services for the elderly are
usually directed to medical and supportive
residential care.
Counseling support for adults and couples (who do not
fit the above mandates) is, for the most
part, available from private practitioners in
psychiatry, psychology or social work, for fees, which
can be prohibitive for low income people, or those
without private insurance through their employers.
Therefore, these service may not be sufficiently
available, accessible, or affordable (at all) in some
communities, like Parry Sound.
So when ordinary people need counseling support due to
death of someone close, loss of health, loss of
employment, loss of a close relationship, depression,
anxiety, conflict with spouse, employer, or neighbour -
who do they turn to?
In 2003 Parry Sound Family Services was established,
with help from a Trillium Grant, to help meet these
needs. Recently they received additional funding from
the National Child Benefit (NCB) Reinvestment program.
Through these resources, individuals and couples can
receive counseling support for a fraction of its normal
cost, as little as $5.00 per session, depending on their
annual income. Professional counseling can make a real
difference in a person's ability to function as an
employee, parent, partner, or self-sufficient person.
To find out more, call Parry Sound Family Services at
746-9789. A trained, qualified and experienced clinical
professional will call you back within 24 hours.
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