Catholic Family Services is still seeing high rates of clients struggling with anxiety and depression. (File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Rob Mahon

Post-Pandemic Mental Health

Anxiety, depression, not slowing down post-restrictions according to CFS

Jul 6, 2022 | 12:00 PM

The pandemic took a steady toll on people’s mental health, and many of them ended up needing the help of groups like Catholic Family Services (CFS). That need hasn’t gone away yet either, despite the removal of restrictions.

“We’re just very, very steady,” said Louise Zurowski, executive director of Catholic Family Services. “Counselors’ caseloads are pretty full, and we always have a huge list of intakes and referrals.”

Zurowski said over the past two years, they got used to the level of demand for their services always being high. But even though pandemic restrictions are all removed in Saskatchewan, the lingering mental health effects of the pandemic haven’t gone away or even really diminished.

“We’re offering our services in-person or virtual, whatever people prefer,” said Zurowski. “But it hasn’t lightened the load at all. Anxiety and depression are still very much prevalent. It may or may not be as a result of the change and the slowdown, but it seems in the last few years anxiety and depression are very, very prevalent.”

Add to that the rising threat of inflation, which has impacted both CFS and their clients. With people having less money to spend, most organizations worry about donations being impacted, but for CFS inflation has another chain reaction of impacts.

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“We have more and more clients that are non-paying clients, and yet there’s less and less funding that is coming to the agency,” Zurowski said. “There are a lot of people that need services that can’t afford to pay for services. We’re in a situation where we have to balance that out. In order for us to survive as an agency, we need both.”

According to Zurowski, they haven’t yet done a major outreach for donations in spite of the financial problems besetting them. Funding from groups like the Prince Albert and Area Community Foundation has been very important as well, and they got a contribution of $5768 last month.

“Any of those grant funders, they help us a lot, but it’s for a specific program,” said Zurowski. “It’s earmarked, say, for grief or anger management or parenting. So what it does is it allows us to offer that program at a reduced price or no registration fee for the clients. Where we find there’s a lack of funding is for the counselors specifically.”

Zurowski added many of their usual fundraisers over the last couple of years had to be cancelled due to COVID-19.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP