While COVID brought challenges for all of us, imagine the additional complications the pandemic created for those coping with behavioral and mental health issues. Face-to-face sessions between individuals and their physicians and counselors can be challenging to arrange. Medical discussions, assessments and medication management are now often conducted through a virtual or telephone process.
These are just a few of the hurdles facing consumers of the Berks Counseling Center. To help the agency’s consumers through these trying times, Berks Counseling Center applied for and received a grant from United Way’s COVID-19 Response Fund to provide emergency food and PPE supplies to their clients.
Hollie, a consumer of the agency’s Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program, valued the extra support provided through the grant, as he was moving into transitional housing. The ACT program serves 16 to 25 year olds with the most serious and persistent symptoms of mental illness, with little or no family support. “I was grateful [for a grocery gift card], and I was able to purchase food, water and other items to help me get started in my new place.”
Helping our most vulnerable residents – this is how United Way’s work makes a difference and provides support and services to those in greatest need.