Pathways Counselling Resource Centre needs community help to keep offering services

Bryan Garson is a regular client at Pathways Counselling Resource Centre. The Penticton resident encountered a few of life’s speed bumps and needed some help every once in a while.

Garson entered the centre’s Intensive Coordinated-Care Opioid Navigator program, also known as ICCON, and he’s taken the Working Men’s DEW (Day, Evening, Weekend) program half a dozen times. It’s an intensive outpatient treatment program that helps people to recognize their own skills that will sustain their sobriety and create awareness in their environment.

“It can help you better yourself in society and stuff,” Garson says. “I’ve taken it six times because every time you learn something new.”

Garson doesn’t beat around the bush when asked what Pathways—and specifically his counsellor, Mike Mai—has meant to him. “It’s meant the world to me. Mike and the team there have helped me out so much it’s not even funny.”

Garson definitely wasn’t laughing in May 2021 when Interior Health management pulled Pathways' approximately $500,000 annual funding. IH’s stated its goal was essentially to bring all of the region’s mental health and substance use services under one umbrella.

Pathways, which is a not-for-profit outpatient counselling treatment centre working diligently to keep its doors open, noticed an immediate change that was not for the better. Due to the funding being cut there is little or no room for free counselling in the community. Those looking for help either have to pay for private counselling and treatment services, or request a subsidy at Pathways. Many people report they would have to wait a long time for service in the IH mental health and substance use system.

“I had someone come in just yesterday who said they’ve been told they’ve got up to a year to wait to get in to see a particular professional,” Pathways senior clinical counsellor Steve King says. “This person contacted another local agency to find that they’ve got a six month waitlist for service as well. Whereas we see people as soon as possible. If we get a cancellation we’ll call a person waiting in right away. We can usually see someone within a week or less.”

Not all of Pathways clients can afford to pay for private counselling, which is why Pathways is seeking financial assistance from the community and source funding through grant applications and other revenue streams. The centre has been serving the community for more than 40 years and does not want to stop now.

“From a funding perspective, if people can afford to pay for service, that’s great,” King says. “If they can’t, we have a sliding scale. And for some people who can’t afford to pay anything, we do have some funds and can subsidize those counselling sessions.”

Now that Pathways is operating as an independent counselling centre, it has expanded its services substantially to help the community even more. In addition to addiction programs, King and the team can help when it comes to obsessions, compulsions, fears, phobias, anxieties, traumas, grief, relationships and life skills, and empowerment for families, couples and individuals.

Pathways also offers several group sessions that are no charge. A Thursday Recovery Drop-In Group operates from 2-4 p.m. at the 996 Main St. office in Penticton. A Life Over the Influence Group for those affected by a loved one’s substance use, a Women Thriving group and a Working Men’s DEW group are also offered on a regular basis. Those interested in group sessions can call Pathways at 250-492-0400 to register.

Renee Matheson, who owns the Aurora Matheson Art Gallery in downtown Penticton, figures she has referred more than 50 people to Pathways over the years. She has seen addiction harm her own family, so she goes out of her way to help anyone and everyone in the community.

“When Pathways lost that funding, it was absolutely devastating, not only to the staff there and to so many clients who didn’t have the means to pay for counselling, but to all the people who have sent people to them, like myself and family members,” Matheson says. “It amazes me that they’ve been able to hang in there. They’re so incredibly dedicated, and they’re so approachable and caring.”

Pathways fulfilled more than 400 service requests, individual appointments and group services in March 2023 alone, which illustrates just how much it is needed.

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This article is written by or on behalf of the sponsoring client and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.