Counselling Service

A free confidential service for MDANZ Members with a neuromuscular condition and those close to them.

We believe that the impact of living with a progressive neuromuscular condition sometimes raises feelings or issues that can be helpful to talk about. By partnering with a respected organisation that screens counsellors and matches them with clients nationwide, MDANZ is able to provide funded access to a private, close to home counselling option for our members.

 

MDANZ & Telus Health

MDANZ has a proud new partnership with TELUS Health, and we have worked together to give you access to comprehensive, trusted wellbeing support within close reach.

With highly qualified clinicians, they are well positioned and committed to providing a quality and timely service.

Through this service, you have access to free, confidential coaching and support to help you be your best. This support can be accessed face-to-face, by telephone or virtually.

To access the support is simple and completely confidential. The only way anyone is going to know you are taking advantage of this service is if you choose to tell them yourself.

How to book a session:

Simply call the freephone number and the dedicated wellbeing team member will ask you a few questions to facilitate this process.  The questions will all be things you can answer. E.g. What is your name?  Would you like to see someone face to face? Would you prefer a male or female? What are you wanting support with?

Free Phone: 0800 360 364

Email: wellbeingsupport@telushealth.com (this is monitored during core business hours only)

What are you entitled to?

• 3 sessions per year
• Full, free access to the platform and the full suite of programmes (your family members may also access this at no cost)

Some examples of areas where they can assist are:

• General support for mental health
• Managing stress and/or anxiety
• Support with challenging conversations or processing difficult news
• General relationship issues
• Guidance on parenting
• Improving relationships and more…

 TELUS Health have a diverse group of clinicians and have expertise in supporting people who are:

• culturally and linguistically diverse,
• vision impaired,
• hearing/speech impaired,
• neurodiverse,
• LGBTQIA+,
• living with a disability.

In addition to the support through their clinicians, you can also access support through the platform for free.  Nothing you download, complete or view is linked directly back to you.

How to access the platform:

Note – when you first go to the platform, make sure you go to the ‘Log In’ section, not Sign Up.  There is no need to sign up as you have full, free access available to you already.

What can you access on the platform?

 Within the platform is a great section labelled ‘Support and Resources’.

In here you can find articles, audios, videos, infographics and a myriad of information to support you and your wellbeing journey.

These resources sit across the categories of family, health, life, money and work.

Let’s look at an example:

• Budgeting: If you were wanting help with budgeting, you can simply search the word ‘budget’ and you can download for free a fully editable budget tracker to get you on your way or maybe even watch some of the Videos in the ‘Thriving on a Budget’ Series.

In addition to key word searching in the Support and Resources section, there are also Quick Links through to podcasts, videos and toolkits (which I highly recommend you explore for a topical one stop shop).

The next major section of the platform is the Wellbeing section.  In here you can access the CareNow Programmes and Wellbeing Assessment.

What are the CareNow Programmes?

 These programmes are a self-guided and digital form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Similar to the type of work you might do with one of our counsellors, these are here to support you with techniques that can be practised so healthy thinking and behaviours can come more naturally.

There are a range of programmes available to you, all with bite sized modules to take at your own pace.

Some examples include:

• Sleep
• Working from Home Effectively
• Stress

You can stop and start each module in a time and location that suits you.  Noone else can see what programmes you are accessing; they are simply there to serve and support you on your journey.

 

What is the Wellbeing Assessment?

The Wellbeing Assessment is a quick assessment across the four key pillars of wellbeing:

By answering the questions posed in each section (again, these are all completely confidential to you), the platform will tell you how you are sitting against each and provide you with a total health score. This will help you to understand where you might have strained health and will provide you with recommendations for improvement, as well as encouraging you to keep up the good work where you are already thriving.

 

TELUS Health are there when you need support for life’s tough moments and when you want to be proactive to build up the credits in your wellbeing bank.

 

Disclaimer: All sessions are provided at the discretion of the MDANZ and are reliant on funds being available. The initial three sessions will be at no cost to eligible MDA members, further sessions will be at the members own expense unless further sessions have been preapproved. Sessions do not accumulate and are on an as needed basis. MDANZ has taken reasonable steps to ensure that the quality of the service provider is high but cannot take responsibility for any failings of Raise in the provision of this service.