The Lacombe Family and Support Services (FCSS) received a $44,441 grant from the Government of Alberta to identify and repair the gaps in mental health community groups and supports.  

“As part of the grant, we had to go up, seek out information from the community. Whether it was other community groups and supports that we have in Lacombe area to find what kinds of services they provide for people that are struggling with mental health and addictions determine if there were any gaps and recommend some supports or how we can collaborate better and make it better for people to access services,” said Susan MacDonald, Executive Director for the Lacombe FCSS.

Through their community research, Lacombe FCSS found that accessing mental health supports in Lacombe in a timely manner was proving to be difficult. Many local agencies were requesting more counsellors but with the pandemic underway other things had to be brought into consideration as well.

“With COVID, there is many other things that come into come into bear such as whether or not that support service is open. Can people do things virtually? Do they have the equipment?,” noted MacDonald.

Overall, MacDonald says their experience was very informative for the Lacombe FCSS for their future programming.

“We have lots of different support groups and it's always good to reach out to these support groups to find out what each other, what we're all doing so that we're aware, and can help direct people more quickly,” said MacDonald.

With the information they gathered from the community, they applied for further funding in Phase Two and Three but were not successful in receiving grants.

“Now our facilitator is working on doing some information sessions for people. We will first start with the virtual and then once we're able to open things up as far as using community facilities, and we'll have some in in person support groups and perhaps bring in some other programs and services that already existence, whether it's through Alberta Health Service or Canadian Mental Health Services,” said MacDonald.

The Lacombe FCSS is hosting one of these sessions currently which is called ‘Feeling Plantastic’ which is a social support group.

“The idea is everyone will get a plant as their nurturing themselves and taking care of self-care, they'll actually get a plant and take care of plants along the way,” explained MacDonald.

The Lacombe FCSS is working hard to provide many of their same programming but through pandemic friendly methods. For more information on their programming and other information sessions you can check out their website here, or their Facebook page here.