HELP RE-OPEN INTAKE
For five years, philanthropic funding has given local parents access to perinatal counselling at no cost to them when they cannot otherwise afford it. But the funding commitment made in 2020 is now expiring.
As of April 10, 2025, the program is unable to accept new referrals. The leaves a signficant gap in mental health care for new and expecting parents in our community.
No parent should be blocked from perinatal mental health counselling because their finances are overstretched.
And so, with the support of the South Island Primary Care Society (SIPCS), we are working hard to find a new funding partner in our community or healthcare system.
You are invited to join this effort. By making a donation today, you are helping our community move closer the initial goal of re-opening intake and extending services for six months or more.
Click the Donate Now button to find our campaign page on Canada Helps. We look forward to seeing you there!
Perinatal Service Scenarios
This month, we wrote a paper this month titled “Perinatal Service Scenarios,” and we’d love you to have a copy. If you request it in an email to hello@crdperinatal.ca, we’ll send you a PDF.
This paper documents the history of the CRD Perinatal Counselling Program.
It surveys current service options in the CRD, plus future scenarios with the program operating with different levels of impact based on different levels of funding.
And it presents several ways accessibility to perinatal counselling can improve in our community and beyond. These include an adaptation and adoption of the CRD program to expand access to cities and towns within the Island Health region and across the province.
Funding Partnership Opportunities
Always feel free to approach us about funding parntership opportunities. Email Alyssa Andres, Executive Director for the society (westshorepcsociety@gmail.com). Or start a conversation with Traci at hello@tracimcgee.ca, or text her at 250-885-6760.
Program History
The CRD Perinatal Counselling Program has a long history of support in our community.
Let’s begin with the present-day program. The CRD Perinatal Counselling Program. In June 2020 we opened our doors and started delivering counselling to new and expecting parents across Greater Victoria.
We did this after cuts in public health funding that ended the former postpartum support program. This well-established program made counselling accessible to well more than a hundred moms a year for 30 years.
How could a new program go operational in a couple months?
When a generous, concerned donor in our community surprised us with funds to seed the design and startup of a new and improved program. And when in 2021, a new charitable organization, agreed to assist our operation and development going forward. This is the South Island Primary Care Society, an innovator in healthcare access across Greater Victoria.
Here are some results.
First, new and expecting parents within the boundaries of the Capital Regional District are better able to access counselling at the time they need it. This is because pregnant, prenatal parents are now eligible for program-funded services.
Second, our program counsellors are better able to get resources to the parents with a high need and who are clearly making progress. We can do this because of our relative independence and flexibility to adjust and adapt our operations to consider the circumstances of the families we serve.
As important as the improvements are, the new program retains a few features of a service delivery model that was introduced in 1990. That is when the legacy postpartum program was launched by Joan Wale, a private practice counsellor who since retired. Joan was able to partner with the Queen Alexandra Centre for Children’s Health which provided institutional infrastructure and access to funding through its charitable foundation.
In 1999, Joan invited Traci McGee to share the counselling responsibilities of the program. When Joan scaled back her practice in 2004 to prepare for retirement, Traci accepted the reins as lead clinician for the program.
For years, the program continued to operate with the Foundation as its institutional home. But by 2014, the Foundation had undergone major organizational changes and program oversight transferred to the regional health authority. At that point, the local charity funding that sustained the program was replaced by public health dollars. That is, for six years until a replacement program was needed and, fortuitously, funded with much thanks to the philanthropic group that stepped forward in 2020.
IN THE MEDIA
CBC 2025
BC bill on perinatal mental health gets unanimous support (Mar 12 2025)
BC Legislature 2025 (Reference)
Bill M204
2025 Progress of Bills
Hansard – Mar 10 (10:35 am)
CBC 2020
Island Health cuts funding for postpartum depression counselling program (Mar. 11, 2020)
CBC 2016
B.C. moms waiting to access advanced postpartum mood disorder treatment (Nov. 1, 2016)

“When you study postpartum depression, there is a very clear understanding that in communities where you see more support, there is less depression”
– Ariel Gore