Jami and Raphael join forces to offer community-wide counselling

In 2021 Jami set out a bold and ambitious new five-year strategy to meet its purpose of enriching and saving lives impacted by mental illness and distress in the Jewish community. One of Jami’s strategic priorities is to offer timely and affordable access to counselling and one-to-one psychological therapies to meet the growing demand for professional support.

Counselling for more people
To that end, Jami, the mental health service for the Jewish community, and Raphael-The Jewish Counselling Service (CIO), are joining together to provide counselling to more people and create additional scope to provide appropriate counselling to people with more complex mental health needs.

Jami and Raphael recognise that talking therapies are an important part of mental health and wellbeing support, from preventing emotional issues from worsening and having a significant impact on a person’s life, right through to supporting the recovery of a person whose mental health is impacting on their ability to function.

Providing a better service
Through a merger of the two charities, there is an opportunity to meet the needs of the community more effectively, reduce duplication of operational costs, for those using Jami’s services to get access to counselling, and to reduce waiting times for Raphael clients.

Laurie Rackind, Chief Executive of Jami, said, “Availability of psychological therapies is a much-needed strategic development within Jami’s established mental health service. This merger provides an opportunity for people using Jami’s services to get access to qualified counsellors, and to further develop an established counselling service to meet the needs of our community.”

Barbara~Anne Creeger, on behalf of Raphael, said, “We are delighted that the long-established Raphael Counselling Service is to be merged with Jami’s mental health services, enabling the more effective support of the current and future mental health needs and emotional wellbeing of the community.”

This service will be aimed at people experiencing mild to moderate mental health issues and for people who may not have a mental health diagnosis, yet are struggling with difficult life events and emotions. This includes carers and other adult family members of people experiencing mental health issues.

We are in the process of hiring a Therapies Lead to transition Raphael services, integrate the established Raphael clinical team into Jami, and initiate offering Raphael counselling through Jami.

If you need support or are supporting someone who needs help, visit https://jamiuk.org/get-support/ or contact 020 8458 2223.

If you are struggling to cope or need immediate help, contact Shout’s 24/7 crisis text service. Text Jami to 85258 for free, confidential support.

For free, safe and confidential online counselling and emotional wellbeing services for adults, contact Jami Qwell at https://www.qwell.io/jami