Connecting People to Therapists and Mental Health Services

Connecting People to Therapists and Mental Health Services:

Cape Town, October, 2019 – In a bid to improve access to mental health services throughout South Africa (and beyond), TherapyRoute.com has announced opening its online – free to list – mental health service directory to all qualified mental professionals and service providers including non-profits, community clinics, and private practices.

TherapyRoute believes that opening their platform, to both private and non-profit services, is an example of how private and community organisations can collaborate to achieve mutual aims more efficiently. For example, equipping the public to locate and access mental health services and professionals like psychologists, registered counsellors, and social workers.

Just this year (2019), TherapyRoute served hundreds of thousands of page views (USA, UK, ZA, and AU) and linked thousands of visitors to mental health professionals and services providers. Registering on the platform improves access to services by placing links to these services in front of the people seeking them. It also allows registered organisations and professionals to access tools that they can use to grow their profiles into informative websites and publish high-quality mental-health-related content.

Mindful that barriers to access can extend beyond availability and affordability; TherapyRoute includes socially relevant filters (e.g. Black, LGBT+, Armenian speaking, etc.) that help visitors find the best fit mental health professionals for them. The platform also caters for people who are unsure of what to search for by automatically displaying nearby services.

According to Enzo Sinisi (founder) “one challenge to improving access is that providers focus on delivery and sometimes lack the resources to ensure that their services, and often even their contact details, are accurately presented online”.

TherapyRoute recently led a project that saw 1000 hours donated to collecting, verifying, and adding well over 100 low-fee and no-fee South African services to the database. This effort helps TherapyRoute visitors to locate services that both meet their needs and means. Other mental health organisations (worldwide) are challenged to follow suit and collaborate with and add local providers to the platform.

Many of the South African low/no fee listings are collated in the following city-specific ‘How to find a therapist’ guides.

How to find a therapist in Cape Town
How to find a therapist in Durban
How to find a therapist in Johannesburg
How to find a therapist in Pretoria

For more information visit TherapyRoute.com or contact Vincenzo Sinisi (via the website) for interviews or questions. Click on register to add a practice.