Klinic to close Transcona drop-in counselling program
Klinic Community Health is closing a drop-in counselling program in Transcona, saying they are "no longer in a position to operate two drop-in counselling sites."
For close to a decade, the non-profit community health-care provider has offered drop-in counselling services at its satellite site at the Transcona Access health centre on Regent Avenue. After Dec. 12, Klinic will move its Transcona resources to its Portage Avenue location.
Klinic made the change after seeing a spike in the number of clients coming to their main drop-in counselling site at 870 Portage Ave, executive director Nicole Chammartin said in an interview Tuesday.
In August, Klinic ended drop-in operations at its Broadway location, ahead of an eventual move to a new space on Sherbrook Street. For now, the drop-in services that were offered at the Broadway location have been moved to Portage Avenue.
After that move, Klinic saw a 40 per cent increase in clients, Chammartin said.
"So we really had to look at our resources across the board to make sure that we can best support the client loads where we're getting them."
At the same time, Klinic has seen a drop in demand at the Transcona site over the past few years. In a typical seven-hour shift, two counsellors at the Transcona site would typically see four or five clients, while the program on Portage Avenue saw three times as many people, Chammartin said.
"In some ways that's great. It means people are seeing it as accessible there, people are using the resource and that's exactly what we want to see. We're also better able to support it at our main [Portage Avenue] site because our larger counselling team is there and so they can pitch in."
Chammartin attributes the drop-off in demand at the Transcona site to an increase in services offered at the Transcona Access centre, which offers a range of health and social services.
Chammartin says Klinic isn't cutting back on the amount of drop-in counselling services it offers, and people in Transcona will still be able to access the program — they'll just need to travel to the Portage Avenue site.
People commonly access counselling services at Klinic for help with addictions, anxiety, depression, general mental health issues and relationship issues, Chammartin said.
