The friendly YOSS team provides Palmerston North's young people with a range of accessible, holistic and youth appropriate services. We're passionate about helping young people and qualified to offer professional advice and support. The Youth One Stop Shop offers free information, support, advocacy, counselling, health services, preparation or life skills programmes and holiday programmes for young people in Palmerston North aged between 10 and 24.
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Services Offered
Counselling - YOSS counselling is youth-friendly, non-judgemental, confidential and free! Sam's our super friendly youth counsellor. She works at YOSS Monday to Thursday and can help you out with expressing your feelings, coping with stress, trying different things and generally feeling ok about being you. Check out Sam's staff profile here. Our counselling service is completely voluntary, which means you come along because you want to. The first counselling session is all about checking one another out. You get to meet Sam and decide whether you like her, and Sam gets to have a bit of a chat with you about what's going on in your life. You can even bring your family and friends along so they can get to know Sam too. After this first session we'll be able to talk about if and how we can help, or if there is someone else who may be able to help and support you more. You get to tell us whether you want to come back. It's completely up to you! It'll take around 50 minutes each time you come and see us, and anything you share with us will be kept confidential. However, if you tell us anything that worries us (like about hurting yourself, hurting someone else or if you are being hurt), we will talk about this together and develop a plan if we need to tell anybody else. Our service is free for people aged between 10 and 24 thanks to funding from the District Health Board and Ministry of Social Development. This means we sometimes have a waiting list.
Alcohol & Drug Support - YOSS provides youth-friendly drug and alcohol info as well as advocacy, education, support and advice for young people. We take an early intervention and prevention approach and can also provide awareness programmes if needed. Colin, our Youth Worker, can help you focus on your strengths and encourage you to let others work alongside you when times get tough. He'll help you establish and develop positive relationships with role models and other significant people in your life. He knows some great practical alternatives for coping with stressful situations, and can help you explore any issues relating to drug and alcohol use.
Clinical Psychologist - The YOSS Clinical Psychologist service is mainly used by young people between 15 and 19 years of age and it's free for you to access. Anything you tell Di will be kept confidential, unless you are being harmed, are unsafe or want to harm someone else, but we'll chat more about that when you come in. The main thing is, we're here to help out early on, and talking about it with someone who understands can make such a huge difference. If you'd like to get in touch with Di just give us a call on 06 355 5906 or contact us via our website. Find out more about Di by clicking here. Clinical Psychology has the following service exclusions based on our government funding contract: sexual abuse, violence and anger, intellectual disability, learning difficulties, criminal activities, parenting difficulties, conduct disorder and severe mental health.
Fees and Payment
This is a registered charity.
Services Offered To: Adults Teens Children
Payment: Pro-bono
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Were You Able to Make an Appointment?
One quick last question. Who was seeking counseling today?
Do you know the reason they are not accepting clients?
A community counseling agency is a group therapy practice that offers affordable mental health services. Most are independent non-profit agencies, state agencies, or publicly-funded agencies. A few may restrict who is eligible for services, so it is a good idea to check when you call.
Community counseling agencies are generally more affordable than other therapy providers, but how much more affordable they are will depend on whether you qualify for a discount or sliding scale fee (or if they accept your insurance). Many, but not all, have a policy that they won't turn away anyone due to inability to pay. You should ask about their fees when you first call.
Expect to talk to kind people who want to help you find the care you need. Most community agencies strive to connect you with a live person within 24 hours, if not immediately. If you're asked to hold or leave a message, don't give up; just leave a message and wait. You should hear back pretty quickly.
Most agencies try to set up an initial assessment appointment within a week (some do within 24 hours), though the waitlist to start therapy is usually longer—about a few weeks on average. If you're not eligible or if the agency is not right for you, it's usually still worth it to call or drop in, because staff are knowledgeable about local options and can often refer you to one.