Overview
Overview
Community mental health settings are different to medical settings! We do not need expensive machinery to restore young people’s mental health and get their lives on track again. We need trained counsellors to provide the empathic skilled support and guidance young people need to confront their challenges and make healthy choices
Working with children and youth requires special training and skills. We provide this through ongoing training and by regular supervision with a clinical psychologist. Hearing the stories of traumatised and troubled children and their parents day in and day out takes its toll on our counsellors so we need to provide regular access to personal mentoring and staff wellness activities to enable them to maintain their own emotional wellbeing
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The upside of working with young people is that they have a strong drive for forward development even in the most adverse circumstances. And, most importantly, we derive enormous satisfaction from knowing that we are making a vital contribution to their mental health that will be a source of strength throughout their adult lives. We believe that we are helping to make our society a better place for all.
Mental health services for young people have been one of the last areas to receive attention from the relevant government departments, and currently further development is being curtailed by budgetary constraints. While there are some excellent state services, they are few and far between, distant from the poorest communities, and seldom available in isiXhosa. Nor do they usually provide the comprehensive, multi-faceted and individualised service which is received by every client at Empilweni.
While we keep costs low because of our minimal infrastructure requirements, the fact is that salaries add up to large sums of money, especially if we include personal mentoring and staff wellness activities. Because we are a non-profit organisation, we rely on donations, both in-kind and financial, to keep our services afloat.
Make a difference to our children’s future. As Nelson Mandela said, “Our children are the rock on which our future will be built, our greatest asset as a nation. They will be the leaders of our country, the creators of our national wealth who care for and protect our people” (3 June 1995). “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children” (8 May 1995)