At the Salvation Army Center of Hope, there’s a new way for London’s most vulnerable to get the sort of mental health help that circumstances denied them in the past.
On Friday, two students from King’s University College’s School of Social Work were getting ready to see their last clients of the week.
They’re part of a new program that started in January where community members can receive counselling from students.
Daniella Morga (left), M.K. Arundel (middle), Erin Michalski at the Salvation Army Center of Hope. (Mike Lacasse/XFM News)
Daniella Morga and Erin Michalski are both working on getting their degrees and one of the pre-requisites is practical experience.
Experience, they hope, that will not only be a great learning experience but also help real people.
“I’ve always been interested in social work, helping people,” says Michalski, who previously worked at a crisis line and has a post-graduate degree in addictions and mental health. “I want to definitely learn more about the homelessness situation in London and just find out about more of the resources in the community.”
Her first client is scheduled in just a half hour after the support centre opens.
Erin Michalski from King’s University College’s School of Social Work. (Mike Lacasse/XFM News)
“We’ve been really warmly welcomed here. So far, everyone’s been extremely friendly,” says Michalski. She also says that speaking with the people who need the Centre of Hope outside of their services has been a positive experience. “I can only say so much because of confidentially reasons, but I’ve had some really great interactions.”
The program is new and while not many people are taking advantage of it yet, they hope as the word spreads, more people will come in.
“I think many people don’t know we even exist,” says Michalski. “Part of the preliminary work is outreach, even in the building here.”
Daniella Morga preparing for her first client of the day at the Centre of Hope. (Mike Lacasse/XFM News)
Daniella Morga is an international student from the Philippines who used to be a psychologist in her home country and is in her second semester.
“This population is not something that is served typically in my country,” says Morga. She says there aren’t as many agencies that help the homeless population back home, so this will give her much needed experience on how to help people who aren’t as privileged as her former clients.
“I wanted to learn social work. Social work is different from psychology,” says Morga. “Also, psychology in my country, the clients are from a certain socio-economic status. Here it’s different. It’s more social justice oriented. It’s more oriented towards those who really need it and cannot afford it.”
Something that is very important to her.
While she hasn’t had much experience with the clients yet, she is hoping to take what she’s going to learn back to her country, and serve the local Filipino community in London.
M.K. Arundel, the coordinator of field education at King’s University College. (Mike Lacasse/XFM News)
The program is so new that the students involved are the first to work with clients at the Centre and they get to iron out all the bugs.
“We haven’t had the opportunity yet to be able to talk to them to see what types of circumstances and issues they’re dealing with,” says Arundel, speaking about the clients. “Knowing with our existing partnership with the Salvation Army we expect addictions, mental health, lack of connection, isolation, and employment are issues.”
She also says there plan is to expand the program outside of the Salvation Army once those bugs are all dealt with.
“We are in talks with Fanshawe to partner with their programs to provide an interdisciplinary approach to supporting our community,” says Arundel. “We are also involved with the city in the health and homelessness initiative and providing a response to the crisis in the community.”
Some of the Fanshawe programs they’re in talks with include the social service worker program, the child and youth program, and the developmental services program.
“Even the web media program, we’re going to need a website and those kinds of things. We’re trying to tap into all sorts of programs at Fanshawe to fill our growing needs.”
Students see clients three days a week — Monday, Wednesday and Friday, between 12:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. and the program continues until July.
