SonyaMental health is in the forefront of the news daily. What the pandemic has shown us over the past few years was that many of us were not prepared to handle all the serious challenges the came along with it. It also showed us that there’s a significant need for mental health support.
In a joint study conducted by the non-profit Angus-Reid Institute and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 54 per cent of Canadians said their mental health had worsened during the first two years of the pandemic.*
Within the survey, 60 per cent of women aged 18 to 34 said their mental health had worsened throughout the pandemic, and that number jumped to 63 per cent for women aged 35 to 54 within the timeframe.
To help combat the growing health crisis in Canada, TELUS announced the expansion of its Health for Good™ program to now provide FREE access to TELUS Health MyCare counselling services to women in need of mental health support across Canada. TELUS Health MyCare offers convenient, direct access to counselling provided by caring, registered mental health professionals in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec.
Partnering with three women-focused charities: Dress for Success Vancouver, Mamas for Mamas and YWCA Metro Vancouver, TELUS will provide over 1,000 free counselling sessions per year to women in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario.
“The pandemic has taken a toll on mothers, family caregivers, women and gender diverse people,” said Jill Schnarr, Chief Social Innovation and Communications Officer, TELUS. “As a world-leading technology company and a global health care leader, we are leveraging our technology, expertise and compassion for good. Helping more women through our TELUS Health for Good program, this expansion is focused on removing barriers, making it easier and more affordable to access mental health services and making a meaningful difference in their lives.”
By leveraging the TELUS Health MyCare easy-to-use app, the program expansion covers the cost of providing women experiencing marginalization with improved access to mental health services and well-being support, removing the stigma and expense often encountered when accessing preventative allied health care. Private one-on-one sessions are delivered virtually via a smartphone app which is available for free on the Apple App store or the Google Play store.
With the Canadian Women’s Foundation report recently highlighting a 45 per cent difference in the rates of high levels of depression between mothers and the general population, the expansion will add a critical service for women and mothers in need.
TELUS Health for Good is part of the TELUS Connecting for Good portfolio of programs that gives individuals in need across Canada access to TELUS’ world-leading technology. Since 2014, the TELUS Health for Good program, and its mobile health clinics, operating in 23 communities across Canada, have enabled nearly 150,000 patient visits Canada-wide. Learn more about the programs here.
*source: press release – study conducted in March 2022.