28 May 2020
Groundup spoke to Romi Kaplan, a counsellor, about mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kaplan is co-founder of the Counselling Hub, a low-cost counselling service in Woodstock, Cape Town. Established in February 2019, the Counselling Hub offers affordable professional mental health services to people with low incomes.
She said that she started the initiative because she noticed that there were very few affordable options for South Africans who needed a space to work through issues. “You can either go to a psychologist who is really expensive or you can go to a friend who isn’t necessarily trained,” she said. Private counselling can cost from R350 to over R1,000 per session. Initially the Counselling Hub was charging R50 for one-on-one sessions, but with Covid-19, all sessions have become virtual and donation-based.
“Because of Covid we know that people’s finances are even more stressed and we don’t want to add to that burden so we ask for a donation,” said Kaplan. She said they are currently reaching over 100 clients a week.