Over the past few years, mental health walk-in clinics have become more popular across Canada. As data continues to emerge about long wait times and barriers to mental health treatment, services like walk-ins are becoming increasingly important. ‘what’s up’ walk-in counselling clinic in Toronto has been an instrumental part of our experience at Yorktown Family Services. As one of six ‘what’s up’ walk-ins in the GTA, we’ve been able to provide barrier-free mental health counselling services to hundreds of children, youth, and families across the GTA. The walk-in has been so successful that we’re excited to announce that we are officially opening another mental health walk-in clinic FOR YOUTH at our West Toronto Youth Hub today!! It is located at the Jane Street Hub (1541 Jane Street – Jane Street and Trethewey Dr.). The walk-in hours will be Tuesdays from 2pm-5pm and Thursdays 3pm-8pm.
The West Toronto Youth Hub is dedicated to supporting young people ages 12-25, and also has youth mentorship programs, a program providing support to teens and young adults with children, and other youth development initiatives.
A client of one of Yorktown’s mental health walk-in clinics states “receiving counselling when I was in crisis mode was absolutely transformative. I learned techniques that enabled me to guide myself through and become more stable. To receive support at exactly that time was extremely valuable as the coping skills I learned worked; I know I can confidently refer to them in the future. When I first walked in, I was very closed off. It was really helpful to hear the walk-in therapist, Jen, tell me that everything was going to be ok. It was something that was vitally important and had never been said to me in the past. My parents’ first language is not English and they have never had exposure to something like this. To have someone address the issues head-on and provide the reassurance that everything would be fine was of tremendous help.” The same client also says “when I came to Yorktown, I immediately felt that I was in a caring environment and this encouraged me to open up. I felt that I could really speak for the first time in quite a while and that I was actually being heard; not just brushed off. All the counsellors that I spoke with made me feel like this was something that they wanted to do. They were really there for me.”