B.C. announces $4.2M to expand free, low-cost counselling services at 49 organizations

The province has announced $4.2 million in funding for low-cost or free counselling options in communities across B.C.

Mental Health and Addictions Minister Sheila Malcolmson said that the money will go to 49 already existing community counselling organizations, with a focus on rural, remote and Indigenous communities. The funding will allow those organizations to continue low-cost or free counselling until March 31, 2023.

"Community counselling recognizes the ways that housing food security, employment, migration, history, language, all affect a person's mental health," Malcolmson said during the funding announcement Thursday (Jan. 27). "We know that counsellors and these organizations connect people together with those services and supports that includes housing, employment, insurance, addiction treatment, even coming to appointments with them."

Malcolmson said that previous community counselling funding has given nearly 25,000 people access to counselling services, with some organizations seeing a 20 per cent increase in clients coming in.