Bridging the Gap to Mental Health Therapy
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Why we exist
This work began with one person trying to find a way through.
Josh founded Access to Therapy in 2023 after experiencing how difficult it can be to find long-term counselling when you cannot afford private care. The charity exists to make sure financial circumstances do not decide who gets access to therapy.
Joshua Cecil Haney knows what it feels like to need long-term care and keep finding doors that lead somewhere else.
Read Josh's story in Global NewsJosh's starting point
Mental health struggles did not begin for him in adulthood.
Josh struggled with his mental health from childhood. As he got older, he kept running into the same cycle: seeing a doctor, waiting months for a referral to the provincial system, and eventually reaching an overburdened community mental-health worker. The worker referred him to a psychiatrist, but that referral meant waiting months too.
He received a diagnosis and medication. He was told that long-term care was what he needed. But that care was only available privately, and he could not afford it. Eventually, he would give up trying—until another crisis made the need impossible to ignore.
The pattern
A system can be full of steps and still leave someone without a way forward.
- 01
See a doctor.
- 02
Wait months for a referral to the provincial system.
- 03
Reach an overburdened community mental-health worker.
- 04
Be referred to a psychiatrist, then wait months to see one.
- 05
Receive a diagnosis and medication.
- 06
Hear that long-term care is needed, but only available privately.
- 07
Be unable to afford it, give up, and wait until another crisis.
Then, when the next crisis came, the cycle began again.
Back to the beginningAcute care and the care after
A hospital can keep someone alive in crisis. It did not give Josh the long-term therapy he needed.
Josh has spoken about his experience in a Winnipeg hospital as part of this story. Acute psychiatric care matters: in an immediate crisis, it can provide safety and help keep someone alive.
For Josh, though, that acute care was not the same as the ongoing professional counselling he needed. Saying that is not a judgement on every hospital or every clinician. It is a clear account of the gap he experienced between surviving a crisis and having access to the long-term care that could help him keep going.
His experience made the cost of that gap impossible to ignore.
The mission
2023
That is why Josh founded Access to Therapy.
In 2023, after these experiences, he founded the charity to remove the financial barrier that had kept long-term therapy out of reach. Access to Therapy exists to make long-term professional counselling accessible regardless of a person's financial circumstances.
The promise is practical: eligible counselling costs can be covered in full, so needing care does not have to mean being able to pay for private care.
A next step, when you're ready
Help should be possible to reach.
If you need funded counselling, you can apply. If you want to make this work possible for someone else, you can donate or learn how to sponsor the mission.