We took a tour bus to Northern Ireland on Saturday and I was stunned by many things, in good and bad ways. We took a black cab tour through the city of Belfast where we learned about the strict divide between the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. That was very alarming, but what was cool was that the small black cabs that we squeezed 6 people into are handicap accessible!!
We parked so we could exit the cab and look at the peace wall that is in Belfast city, and I saw a sign for a counseling center (pictured below). I looked up this center and it is a counseling centre specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, treating difficulties with anxiety, depression, OCD, anger, and more. The website says that they do one 90 minute initial session and then 60 minute sessions from there on out, and each is £40. It also says that they are non-binding and you can come when you want and you don’t have to come every week necessarily. I didn’t see anything about insurance on the website, something that stuck out to me. I may be wrong, but to my knowledge there are not places like this in the U.S. In order for a patient to seek therapy, many times they must be referred to a therapist or psychiatrist by their primary care doctor, and it is really expensive if insurance does not cover the expenses, and it can take a very long time to book an appointment with these kinds of professionals. I thought this was very interesting because it seems like a welcoming place where someone can go who is in need of a little help, and it doesn’t seem to be a struggle like it can be in the U.S. to gain access to talk therapy. Seeking successful mental health assistance could be easier for people who are afraid to reach out with places such as this.
The picture below was an advertisement I saw on a bus that drove by in Belfast. The marketing department behind this succeeded at their job because it caught my eye and I went to the website listed to learn more information. I didn’t know much about motor neuron disease but the website delivered helpful information and shared many stories about people who were diagnosed with this later on in their life, which is very common, and had to learn how to begin living life as a person with a disability and many times from a wheel chair after often living 30 years without ever having to deal with these difficulties.
