— Anxiety and Depression Most Prevalent —
The demand for counselling and psychotherapy services increased by 25% in 2020 due to Covid-19 Restrictions according to Mental Health Counselling Services Provider, MyMind. Over 35,000 sessions were delivered throughout 2020 in comparison to 28,000 in 2019 and 20,000 the previous year.
According to the charity’s 2020 annual report, MyMind worked with people as young as seven years old with the average age of those seeking sessions being 34.
The most prevalent issues that were addressed in 2020 were Anxiety (26%), Depression (15%), Relationship Issues and Stress (8%). It was found that the conditions brought on by Covid-19 were a large contributing factor to these issues.
MyMind is a community-based mental health service that works towards giving every person in Ireland equal access to mental health support by offering their services on a discounted scale based on a person’s employment status. MyMind has five physical centres — three in Dublin and one each in Limerick and Cork, with over 100 therapists delivering a range of therapeutic approaches in up to 15 languages.
Krystian Fikert, Founder of MyMind said: “Pre-Covid annual appointments were at 28,000 per annum with 95% of those sessions being face-to-face. However, since the pandemic, this has completely flipped, over 77% of sessions were delivered online and even during less restricted periods client preferences still favoured the online environment.”
“We deliver all remote sessions through our secure, online platform. No video conferencing apps are necessary. The shift over the last year to remote sessions has been phenomenal. We’ve been able to reach more people across Ireland and our services have also been accessible by those in the most rural locations.
“With the effects brought by Covid-19 restrictions, counselling and psychotherapy has never been in more demand so we are delighted to have been able to offer these services without barriers to those who need them most.”
MyMind delivered over 15,000 free counselling and psychotherapy sessions to those affected by Covid-19 since June 2020. These free sessions were facilitated through funding provided by Sláintecare and the HSE, which has been further extended to September 2021.
MyMind delivers an extensive range of therapies from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to Humanistic Counselling, and currently delivers services in 15 languages, in an affordable and direct manner that is accessible to anyone.
MyMind is hosting a free live webinar in collaboration with Pieta House this week which will explore the important topic of suicide. Know Suicide, Know the Signs is set to debunk some of the myths that exist around suicide, explore the issues around suicide and provide some practical pointers on learning the signs and being able to provide support to someone who is potentially struggling with suicidal thoughts.
The Webinar takes place on Thursday, June 17 at 11 am. This is a free public event and you can register here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/157785790547c
For more information or to access the range of services please go to MyMind.Org
