Member Article

Coalfields cash supports Staffordshire counselling service

Thanks to £10,000 from the Coalfields Community Investment Programme, delivered by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, Phoenix Counselling Service in Burntwood and Lichfield will reduce their long waiting list for appointments.

At present the waiting time for appointments is three or four months, and the funds will be used to provide counselling for the 27 people on the waiting list. Also, during the coming year, counselling will be provided for another 110 people.

The counselling offered to local people will help to improve their health and wellbeing by focusing on mental health, while also supporting with employment issues they may be facing.

Rhoda Wharton, Counsellor and organiser of Phoenix Counselling Service, comments: “Phoenix is a professional service offering counselling to local people who cannot afford private counselling and for whom the NHS does not provide a similar service. Providing this service is a real challenge, partly because of very limited financial resources; there comes a time when the funding simply does not allow us to meet the demand.

“Being awarded this grant has made a massive difference financially and the support that Coalfields Regeneration Trust has shown has been very encouraging to everyone working within the service.

“Counselling helps people with principally psychological problems, by allowing them to talk and understand their problems and, if appropriate, to develop psychological tools and techniques to enable them to function better. It can help them personally and can also have an effect on their family, friends and the wider community.”

Chief Executive of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, Gary Ellis, comments: “Health and wellbeing is a real concern throughout coalfield communities and that is why we make it a priority to support organisations that are working so hard to make positive changes.

“We hope that through the Coalfields Community Investment Programme, organisations that are so heavily relied upon including Phoenix Counselling Service can carry on and have the lasting impact that makes such a valuable difference.”

Delivered by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, the Coalfields Community Investment Programme supports organisations and programmes of activity that meet with three key criteria; to address skills, employment or health and wellbeing.

The Coalfields Regeneration Trust was established in 1999 and is the only organisation dedicated to supporting former mining towns and villages.

Over the years more than 2m people have benefited from support delivered by the organisation. More than 25,500 people have been supported into work, 5,500 jobs have been created or safeguarded, 1.3m people have received the necessary support to help improve their skills and gain qualifications and over 250,000 people have participated in activities that have improve their health.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Nick Hill .