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Virtual walk-in clinic helps people who can’t visit in person

June 5, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

With treatment in various health-related fields becoming difficult due to the physical distancing protocol during the COVID-19 pandemic, a local mental health expert has come up with a way to see clients while maintaining social distancing.

Tracey Hand-Breckenridge, a Registered Psychotherapist and Supervisor, opened the Carley Rawes Centre in Orangeville just over a year ago.

The clinic caters to people from late teens to their thirties with a focus on the treatment of depression and anxiety, although they do accept people of all ages.

Ms. Hand-Breckenridge recently launched a virtual walk-in psychotherapy clinic designed to help people in imminent distress or those who just want a single session of therapy.

Psychotherapy is primarily a talk-based therapy and is intended to help people improve and maintain their mental health and well-being. Registered psychotherapists work with individuals, couples, and families in individual and group settings.

At the Carley Rawes Centre, they focus primarily on younger people and adjust their sessions accordingly.

“There is a need for a service for people that can be identified in that demographic,” Ms. Hand-Breckenridge explained. “Our therapists are a little younger and selected for that reason. Typically a patient comes in for several sessions or longer. Although some people don’t want to commit to a longer session.”

The idea for a virtual walk-in clinic was already in the works when the COVID-19 pandemic happened. The fact that physical distancing came into effect meant Ms. Hand-Breckenridge put some extra effort to get the system up and running.

The virtual system allows patients to speak to a therapist face-to-face on a secure system.

“We had talked about doing the virtual clinic at the end of summer along with our regular walk-in clinic.”

Many patients find it comforting to speak to a therapist while still in the comfort of their own home.

Ms. Hand-Breckenridge said she and her team use a special kind of treatment which with they have had ‘quite a bit of success.’

“We do something that is a little different. It’s a treatment called EMDR, which is used to treat things like trauma, addiction, fears, depression, and anxiety. It’s a more thorough way to treat patients rather than standard therapy.”

The virtual walk-in clinic will help many people during a difficult when physical distancing is necessary or when making a visit to the clinic itself is a problem for patients.

Services at the clinic are covered by most third party insurance policies – those policies that are typically covered in benefit packages at a person’s place of work.

To learn more or to book an appointment, you can visit the clinic website at www.carleyrawescentre.ca.

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