Bournemouth charity offering low-cost counselling amid cost of living crisis

A Bournemouth-based charity has set up a low-cost counselling service for people in the area, after seeing a spark in demand during lockdown and again since the cost of living's gone up.

The new service is an extension of YMCA Bournemouth’s existing offering which, last year alone, accommodated more than 100 clients, volunteers, and YMCA employees – with more than 850 counselling hours provided - as Counselling Lead, Amanda Clark, explains:

“We set up our counselling service six years ago, initially to support our existing clients, who often face difficult life circumstances or events. This was then extended to our staff and volunteers.

“We saw a spark of demand during lockdown as many people couldn’t access wellbeing services, and our counsellor workforce grew to accommodate this need."

The charity confirmed the low-cost counselling service will be available for residents all across Dorset - in person and virtually - amid increasing cost of living pressures.

Speaking to Wave 105, Amanda Clark, Counselling Lead at YMCA Bournemouth, told us already they are seeing more people needing support and not enough provision:

"Only time will tell whether or not that is in relation to the cost of living, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't have something to do with it.

"The cost of living crisis will no doubt have a knock-on effect on people’s mental health over time as it brings more fear and uncertainty, so counselling services will be more crucial than ever before in offering reassurance and support.

"We're going to see new concerns arising, like job security, there's going to be impact on family members and whether they can afford things, and then we're going to see actually the compounded effect of being in such long periods of stress.

"Concerns will become compounded, people have less resilience. There'll be more areas in their lives where they are unable to make space to focus on one concern, without another concern coming up."

Need for more mental health provision

Statistics published by the Office for National Statistics recently reported that deaths from suicide in Dorset increased by a third between 2020 and 2021.

Speaking to us ahead of the mini-budget announcement due later today (Friday, 23 September), where the Government is expected to announce new measures to deal with the cost of living crisis, Amanda Clark, Counselling Lead at YMCA Bournemouth, told us how important for there to be a focus on local mental health provisions:

“General counselling services are difficult to access, often coming hand-in-hand with high-cost implications and long waiting lists.

"While some mental health problems can be attributed to specific issues like bereavement or addiction, others are less apparent. Not everyone knows the root of their issues when they seek counselling, so we need more provisions to help people unearth the causes and find the right support.

"We know that if people have a space to talk about things, if they're able to process what they're going through, it means that we'll be helping to mitigate long term mental health conditions that can rise from being stressed.

"If the government would provide for more provisions I think that will help us ride out this next crisis that we are facing."

• ymca bournemouth