Walk-in mental health counselling expanding in Sask.

More communities in Saskatchewan are set to offer free walk-in mental health counselling.

The Government of Saskatchewan set aside $1.2 million for the services in the 2019 provincial budget, but many of the locations were just finalized.

Walk-in counselling services already were available in Regina, Saskatoon, Yorkton, Humboldt and Melfort. The slate of communities offering the service is being expanded to also include Battleford, Estevan, Indian Head, Kamsack, Kelvington, Nipawin, North Battleford, Prince Albert, Southey, Swift Current, Tisdale, Weyburn and Wynyard. Some communities will have more than one location.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and Family Service Saskatchewan (FSSask) also are working to determine the locations of five additional sites around the province.

“We’re happy to see this happen,” Swift Current Mayor Denis Perrault said Wednesday. “I think we all know mental health has a very terrible stigma attached to it that we hope is eroding over time.

“Mental health is no different than any form of health and it’s something that needs dollars and needs a focus for people to get the help that’s required.”

Perrault isn’t sure where the walk-in services will be offered in Swift Current or who will be in charge of the clinic. All Perrault knows at the moment is that the services will be available in his city — and that’s a start.

“It’s just very important for people that are struggling with mental health issues to know that they’ll now have a place to go, this walk-in form of clinic, to get the counselling that is required,” he said.

Help will be available for anyone dealing with issues including stress, depression, anxiety, family conflict and urgent mental health needs.

People won’t need to make appointments, meaning that anyone who needs help should be able to get it in a timely fashion.

That was good news for Randy Goulden, a city councillor in Yorkton.

“We really would like to see citizens and residents that contribute to their communities to make them a better place to live and work,” Goulden said. “If they’re requiring the services of this counselling, it’s great that it’ll be available somewhere that they can get to, somewhere that doesn’t take them away from their families or from their jobs for any extended period of time.”

There has been counselling available in Yorkton — Goulden referred to walk-in services available through the Society for the Involvement of Good Neighbours — but it’ll help to have more.

“With what we’re seeing and hearing, the statistics in our area, those services are being required more and more by all ages, (by) people from all backgrounds, that are requiring some extra assistance at different times in their lives,” she said.

General Hospital offers assistance

Regina’s General Hospital also is increasing its support for those needing mental health assistance.

On Wednesday, it was announced that patients who need mental health services will have extended access to psychiatric nurses in the hospital’s Emergency Department.

The nurses will be in the department for 16 hours per day, up from eight. The number of full-time equivalent positions for psychiatric nurses goes from two to four.

“There will be coverage there now from 7:30 in the morning until midnight,” said Glen Perchie, the director of the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s emergency department. “That will cover the majority of patients coming in with mental health crises during those times. Those are our peak times.”

Perchie said 7,000 mental health patients a year go to the emergency rooms of Regina’s two hospitals.

“There’s an increased presentation of mental health patients to emergency, and a lot of them are complicated and more complex with substance abuse in general,” said Angie Tangjard, the director of in-patient mental health in Regina.