No Cost Single Session Therapy Service

The Cause

Our idea is the development and implementation of a 'No-cost single session therapy' service provided to the community members within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, focused on:
Prevention, early intervention, and navigation
Therapy sessions will be provided by registered mental health professionals trained in evidence based therapeutic interventions, who have an understanding of the needs of the community, as well as the services available. This service will be available for both in person or virtual sessions, to make it easier to access. This will be a pilot project with the intentions of being maintained by YMM Collaborative Practice and it will move forward following this grant opportunity with a continual call out to the community to support through donations beyond this grant.
Impact of this program will be managed by a post-session questionnaire requesting a response to questions such as:
'Were your needs met in your session today?
Were you given resources following your session to help navigate your mental health care following this single session?
Do you see this is a valuable service for RMWB?
Would you be likely to recommend this services to someone else?
Additional Comments:'

Who Will it Benefit?

We would be aiming to serve individuals (child, youth, and adults), who are seeking support with concerns such as stress management, mental health (ie. Anxiety, Depression, etc.) work stress, burnout, parenting stress, etc.
The RMWB is made up of a large geographical area and providing the option to access this service virtually will allow more flexibility to those outside of the urban area, as well as individuals with barriers to attending an in-person appointments.
We anticipate the benefit of serving these folks would extend far beyond the individual microsystem; expanding to the meso and macro systems of society as a whole. This includes reducing the strain on our healthcare system for non-emergent mental health related concerns, facilitating awareness of local resources available, while reducing the financial barriers for those seeking mental health care who are most at risk.