Walmsley Employee Family Assistance Program was designed to help individuals and their families get the support they need for whatever issue they are experiencing. Thousands of people have accessed our services when they are feeling distraught, overwhelmed, or just need to talk out their problems with someone who can listen and offer help. At Walmsley, we understand that asking for help can be a difficult decision to make, and there could be many factors that seem like obstacles in the moment such as worries about confidentiality, service delivery, and overall stigma of seeking support for mental health.
Confidentiality is of the utmost importance to us at Walmsley. Accessing our services can be done over the telephone or through an online form on our website. There you can decide how you want one of our counsellors to reach out to you to schedule your first appointment, with some people preferring email or text message if they are seeking privacy or discretion. During your first appointment, your counsellor will go over confidentiality with you and will answer any questions you may have. Additionally, your employer will receive no information about anything to do with your sessions, not even the fact that you scheduled them in the first place. We want you to feel safe and comfortable talking to your counsellor about anything that comes up during a session, and that can only happen if you know your sessions are confidential.
Throughout COVID, many people have had to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape where everyday activities like getting groceries, exercising, and seeing family were much more difficult or risky. The same can be said for getting support for your mental health. Most of the world had switched to delivering services online, and counselling was no different. It has been an adjustment for sure, but if you’d rather do your sessions over the phone or webcam, we still offer virtual service delivery and will continue to do so. Like confidentiality, safety is important to us at Walmsley. If you would rather see your counsellor in their office, you are still welcome to wear a mask and distance appropriately.
One of the major obstacles around seeking mental health support has been the question “what will people think of me?” There is the assumption that seeking help for mental health makes someone weak or unable to manage their own lives, but this could not be further from the truth. It takes courage to reach out for help. There are lots of reasons someone might want to open up to a counsellor: an unbiased point of view, a listening ear, strategies for coping, or an opportunity to get some feedback from a professional with education and experience in mental health issues. No matter what your reasons are, they are valid and they matter.
If you don’t feel quite ready to talk to a counsellor, you can still get help from our Wellness Library. If you log on to our website at www.walmsley.ca, you can get information on a wide variety of topics like anxiety, depression, conflict, divorce, parenting, and more. There are also resources available there like podcasts and apps that could be helpful to you. No matter what kind of support you are seeking, remember that Walmsley is here.
Robert Baker, MA RCC
Walmsley EFAP