Important Notice
closed to new referrals
With heavy hearts, we have closed intake to new referrals as of April 11, 2025.
The program office remains open (at 250-885-6760) for enquiries, and as a point of support for parents who are still receiving perinatal mental health counselling through the program.
Also, the program website continues as an information hub about local perinatal mental health services, advocacy for access to these services, and the effort to secure funding that may allow the program to resume.
What is the CRD Perinatal Counselling Program? It is a philanthropy-enabled initiative with a 35 year legacy of giving local parents access to fully funded mental health counselling when they need it in their family’s formative perinatal period. (For six of those years, public health dollars allowed the program to operate.)
The 2025 closure of intake is the first and biggest step for ending the program. For parents who are actively receiving counselling through the program, all program-funded services are expected to conclude sometime before the end of June 2025, or thereabouts.
For the latest update on the program and the effort to keep perinatal counselling accessible to local parents–and what present and future options may be available–jump to the Program Status page.
PS: The closure means that too many moms and their partners will have no option but to endure a perinatal mental health disorder without treatement. That is, even when effective treatments are available in our community.
We see this as a vital public health gap that Island Health and the Ministry of Health can and should address by ensuring that parents have universal access to specialized periantal mental counselling when it is needed. Until then, we are reaching out to local healthcare leaders and mental healthcare champions to secure bridge funding that allows parents to get needed counselling without further delay.
Whether that can happen soon or down the road, our team is ready to restart program services that helps perinatal parents be at their best. And with program partners and supporters like the South Island Primary Care Society, we are available to assist anyone who is helping make perinatal counselling accessible in or around the CRD.
