Aim

Our charity is raising money towards the costs of leasing a larger premises, which will enable us to vastly increase counselling provision.

Why Cairns Counselling needs your support: 

Cairns Counselling secured the lease of a larger office premises in November, 2019 and invested significant funds into the refurbishment of the premises, in order to give the charity more counselling rooms to deliver significantly more counselling appointments so it could respond to the huge demand for its mental health support service. 

Our charity moved into the premises in February, 2020, just before the pandemic hit, and we have had to put the expansion of the face-to-face counselling service on hold during the pandemic whilst the charity responded to the urgent need for remote counselling support. 

Consequently, the charity has had to cover the increased costs of leasing the premises throughout COVID whilst the level of donations has significantly decreased, so we need your support to help us recover and resume the face-to-face counselling service. 

Cairns Counselling's vital mental health work: 

Cairns Counselling is a mental health charity based in Aberdeen, which provides professional counselling to people facing mental health struggles. 

Our charity recognises that affordability can be a barrier to accessing professional counselling services and, therefore, offers a two-tier system, which offers the vast majority of its counselling appointments for free for those who cannot afford to pay a fee, with the option of giving a donation if they can, and a smaller proportion of counselling appointments for a flat rate for those who are in a financial position to pay.  

It has been well documented throughout the pandemic that COVID-19 and the devastating outcomes, such as job losses, relationship breakdowns, social isolation, and bereavement, have exacerbated mental health issues and created a mental health crisis and it is crucial that Cairns Counselling is in a strong position to respond to the increased demand and accumulating waiting list for its counselling services.  

Prior to COVID-19, the charity offered 100% of its counselling appointments face-to-face within its office premises. 

Throughout the pandemic, the charity has developed a remote counselling service from scratch, which has involved providing counselling via video conferencing and phone, to ensure that people struggling with their mental health could access vital support during lockdown. 

The charity is now preparing to reinstate the face-to-face counselling service, in adherence with government guidelines, and develop the remote counselling service further, so that it can provide a range of counselling services to meet a range of support needs and reduce the charity’s growing waiting list for counselling appointments for people living in Aberdeen and the locality experiencing mental health difficulties, as a matter of extreme urgency.  

How your donation will help: 

Cairns Counselling will use donations from Aviva to cover the increased running costs associated with securing a larger, leased premises, which forms a crucial part of our strategy to expand the capacity of the charity’s counselling services.   

Funding from Aviva would provide us with funds towards covering the increased cost of leasing our larger premises (£2,130 exclusive of VAT per month), which will support our charity to relaunch our face-to-face and remote counselling services on a much larger scale and significantly increase the capacity of the charity’s counselling service provision.    

Sincerest thanks for considering supporting our mental health charity, Cairns Counselling. 

This project successfully funded on 21st September 2021