A multimedia company has provided funds to see if it’s possible to place a community psychology clinic at Lakehead University.
Officials with the university announced Bell Let's Talk Community Fund will provide $12,200 to conduct a feasibility study. The study, expected to be completed by February, will look at the gaps in the community including gaps in mental services and how the clinic can fit into the overall training objectives of the university.
Josephine Tan, an associate professor at Lakehead University, said they determined that they needed a clinic by first looking at the high need for mental health services in the region and trying to keep psychological students in Thunder Bay.
“We thought it would be a really good idea to have an on-site campus clinic,” Tan said. “I think there is a waiting list out there in the community. People have to wait quite a while before they can get health services.
“The hospital is doing a lot to handle that but I think for cases where you aren’t very critical, they are usually low on the priority list. In order to shorten the waiting list the psychology clinic will probably help the people that are low on the waiting list.”
Tan said students would have hands on training unlike what they had before with teachers and supervisors overlooking their practice. She added that once the study was over it could take up to five years to have the clinic built.
Liane Kandler, a PhD student in clinical psychology, said even though she wouldn’t be around when the clinic opens she knows from talking with other students on Facebook that campus based clinics do help.
“It’s greater peer support, it’s the opportunity to view clinical training, to view practices from day one, exposure to a greater number of supervisors and the list does really go on,” Kandler said.
“There are a number of benefits and implications that I think will just come out over the course of the clinic. Maybe when it has been up and running for a few years.”
