TALK NOW Clinic

The Talk Now Mental Health and Addictions Virtual Clinic is a Peterborough Ontario Health Team initiative. It is a clinic developed and operated in partnership with 6 community partner agencies: Kinark Family Health Services, Peterborough Regional Health Centre, Peterborough Family Health Team, Peterborough Youth Services, Fourcast, and CMHA HKPR. The clinic offers barrier-free, timely access to mental health and addictions services including single session therapy, Nurse Practitioner, and Psychiatry services. Clients may access the clinic as often as they need and may be assisted to connect with longer-term services where indicated. Single session therapy is a therapeutic model that supports clients to work through a presenting issue and develop a plan within the session, but clients may access this therapy numerous times. Follow up with the Nurse Practitioner and psychiatry is necessary in many cases, and is still offered on a “walk-in” basis (vs. scheduled appointments) to be as accessible to clients as possible. Although located in various agencies and physical locations, the staff working in “Talk Now” operate as a virtual team and regularly meet to work through logistical details and participate in clinical supervision. The clinic is overseen by the Steering Committee made up of senior leaders of the participating agencies.