Covid-19 Therapy Announces Launch of BC Counsellors COVID-19 Support Initiative
In response to the evolving pandemic, a team of counselling and technology professionals have launched COVID-19 Therapy (covid19therapy.ca). This free service is dedicated to connecting registered counselling professionals in British Columbia with front-line health care workers, including respiratory therapists, porters, cleaners, personal support/care workers, doctors and nurses.
Here is how the covid19therapy.ca service works:
- Counsellors, psychologists and social workers able to volunteer and provide support to front-line health care workers register at covid19therapy.ca.
- Credentials of all therapists are verified before they are officially listed.
- Front-line health care workers in need of support sign-up at the site and receive contact information for three volunteer therapists. Healthcare workers choose which therapist they would like to work with.
- Three video or phone sessions are offered free of charge.
COVID-19 Therapy was co-founded by Dr. Corrinne Allyson, a Victoria-based mental health professional with more than 30 years of experience as a psychotherapist, counsellor, and educator, and Ross Dunn, CEO of StepForth Web Marketing.
Both Allyson and Dunn wanted to give back to the front-line health care workers of British Columbia. Their team has volunteered hundreds of hours in developing COVID-19 Therapy, and StepForth has generously covered all web-related expenses including premium hosting services and plugin licenses.
“My wife is an Intensive Care nurse, and I have seen firsthand the extraordinary commitment of health care workers — I felt I had to do something to give back, says Dunn. He also the creator of COVID19now.com, a website he says helps “disseminate accurate information on the pandemic in the hope that it would help flatten the curve and limit the exposure of health care workers like my wife and her amazing colleagues.”
“There have been different approaches in B.C. regarding the need for volunteer counselling in the community,” says Dr. Allyson. “We recognize that front-line workers are at capacity and many do not have the ‘bandwidth’ left to search different services and find one that works for them. We wanted something quick, easy, and direct. Thus, COVID19therapy.ca was created. We hope this site will be supportive to those to whom we owe so much.”
