A local charity wins a grant to help survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence.

            Ryedale Counselling Service has been awarded a grant of £89,000, over the next three years, by the Henry Smith Charity to continue its specialist counselling service.  The service provides long term counselling to survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence – as well as brief therapy to people indirectly affected by these issues.

            The service is available to anyone  living in Ryedale, aged 13 and over, plus patients of Norwood House surgery in Scarborough. 

            Clients can be referred by their doctor; by any other NHS worker e.g. Mental Health Primary Care Worker or IAPT  Practitioner; or by any other statutory body or voluntary agency e.g. Citizens Advice Bureau, Scarborough Whitby and Ryedale MIND or Scarborough & Ryedale Carers Resource.

            Ryedale Counselling Service provides counselling at Ryedale Community House, Malton and at four GP surgeries across Ryedale (Derwent Practice, Pickering Medical Practice, Helmsley Health Centre and Sherburn Surgery) as well as at   Norwood House Surgery.

            Clients can also self-refer to the service by telephone, via e-mail; or by completing the referral form on the Ryedale Counselling Service website and posting or e-mailing it to the service.

            Stephen Robling, Counselling Service Manager said: “Ryedale Counselling Service is delighted that, thanks to the generous support of the Henry Smith Charity, we are able to continue this vital work. It means that we can provide long term  counselling, rather than the brief therapy offered by our core service, which is more appropriate to this client group given the sensitive nature of the issues involved.

            The grant will also give the service time to grow its own income. This is crucial given the economic and fiscal environment in which we all now live. Whilst the  demand for our services has grown by over 40% over the past five years, our funding has remained either static, or in the case of the NHS, has actually reduced. The NHS grant is being cut by 8% from October this year and will contribute barely a quarter of our revenue, even though 80% of the work we do is directly for NHS patients.

            We plan to meet this challenge by:

• Launching a chargeable couple counselling service by Christmas;

• Introducing charges for missed appointments from the autumn;

• Expanding our student Placement Programme – greater use of trainee counsellors (properly supported by us and their training provider) will help us to keep our costs down”

            Clients can self refer to the specialist counselling service in three ways:

Telephone: 01653 690 124

E-mail:     counsellors@rva-cvs.org.uk

Post:         Ryedale Counselling Service, Ryedale Community House, Wentworth Street, Malton, YO17 7BN

 Using the self-referral form on the website: www.ryedalecounselling.org.uk  

 Stephen Robling.