With funding from Awards for All, CALMS is excited to launch its New Beginnings Programme! New Beginnings will help those in our community who do not currently access mental health services (including various forms of counselling, complementary therapies and other forms of support) to come into CALMS and access these services for the first time.

We currently support those affected by the conflict to access these much needed services through our VSS funded project.

This additional Awards for All funding will help us reach out to everyone, including those not originally from Northern Ireland. Mental health issues and the effects of stress have become acute throughout our communities and changes to the Welfare system are making them even more critically felt especially in a financial sense. We offer benefits advice and this project will enable a wider group of participants to access all our support services.

Community organisations across the North West, including those from a Protestant Unionist Loyalist, Catholic Nationalist Republican and Black & Minority Ethnic background, have told us about the substantial increase in people presenting with mental health concerns, stress related illnesses and financial worries over the past two years.

We have conducted research with Ulster University to look at the impact of the services we offer on these issues and have conducted professional research to outline the scale of the problem and how Welfare Reform is likely to continue to see it rise.

A much larger section of the community is currently experiencing the effects of all these issues and this number will only continue to grow when the full effects of Welfare Reform and austerity are felt.

New Beginnings will support all participants to develop their own support plan and to work with our professional staff to ensure they receive the most relevant high quality services.

This includes group work as well as individual treatments. 

The Project is free and accessible to all.  It will offer psycho-social educational information and tools using a CBT approach to address: –

• anxiety
• depression
• fear
• managing panic   

Handouts and specialised health related talks through out the duration of the programme and services.

Please see “Latest News” for Date and Time.

Contact Deirdre directly at the office number or complete the inquiry form for further information.