Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Napanee’s Maltby Centre is now offering a free drop-in mental health clinic for youth, happening every second Wednesday from their Napanee office at 99 Advance Ave.
One hour sessions for children, youth, young adults up to age 24, as well as parents and caregivers, will run from 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., no appointment necessary.
“It’s mostly about what can we do that’s going to be helpful today, in this moment,” said Anne Biggar, clinic program manager at Napanee’s Maltby Centre, on what they offer during the free sessions. “It’s amazing what you can come to when you take a minute to talk with someone that understands what you’re going through.”
Upon arrival, clients will fill out an intake form to provide some insight as to what concerns they’d like to discuss. They’ll then have the opportunity to chat one-on-one-or along with members of their family-with a Maltby Centre registered psychotherapist. Clients have the option to attend as many drop-in clinics as they wish, though there’s no guarantee they’d see the same therapist every time. The option to schedule a regular meeting with the same therapist on an ongoing basis is available as well.
The walk-in clinic launched on Jan. 18 and will continue to run every alternating Wednesday. The walk-in clinic isn’t entirely new, as they offered the service pre-pandemic but then resorted to holding the clinic by appointment only. The option to schedule an appointment still remains, but they now have the added hours to allow for people to drop-in on an alternate Wednesday without having to call ahead.
“When we had originally done it pre-COVID it was a way to meet the community needs efficiently,” said Biggar. “Lots of places in the province have huge wait lists for children’s mental health services. Pre-COVID we actually got rid of our wait lists completely. During the pandemic, off and on we’ve been able to keep the wait list down, there’s been times we’ve had a wait list, but overall we’ve been mostly managing.”
Maltby Centre Napanee’s staff are ready to meet with youth to chat about any issues they may have. Submitted photo.
Parents and caregivers can use the drop-in clinic as well to discuss concerns they have about their child. Stress, depression or cause for worry are all just a few examples of the topics they can address in the counselling session. For a rural community such as Napanee, services to address mental health haven’t traditionally been readily available.
“Our team here is really committed to the Napanee area,” said Biggar. “Some people live here, but for those who don’t live here we all participate in community events and we love Napanee. Everybody fights really hard for the needs of Napanee community. We’ve also partnered with Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario. They operate mostly out of Kingston but they’ve started doing some outreach into rural areas. We’ve partnered with them and on the same day as our walk-in clinics, they’re running a youth activity drop-in. That’s for 12 and up. It’s after school till 5:30 p.m. Kids can come and just hang out and do crafts, play games, have some adults to talk to. Through that program youth can access services.”
Those services can include access to a nurse practitioner for health concerns or help with the job market with links to how to write a resume.
For more information on the clinic or any services they offer, visit www.maltbycentre.ca.