All information about you is stored confidentially and securely on password protected systems and not shared with any other agency without your permission. Only the necessary people will see your details such as your counsellor, coach or worker.
- Home >
- About Cygnus >
- FAQs
Below are responses to some of the common questions that are asked about the services provide here, all in one place to save you searching
If you think there is something missing, your question is not answered and you cannot find it elsewhere on our site, or should you just wish to know more information about the services provided here, feel free to send us a message by clicking the button below.
Cygnus Support
Anyone who is a resident of Northumberland aged 16+ can access the services.
Be You Programme
Any parent(s) and/or carer(s) of Primary and Secondary aged children in the Trailblazer School Areas of Ashington, Bedlington, Blyth and Hexham.
Young People's Mentor
Residents within the Wansbeck area who are aged 16-24 and not currently in education, employment, or training (NEET), or are at risk of becoming NEET are able to take part in the scheme.
Bereavement Support
Any resident in Northumberland whose mental health and wellbeing is primarily impacted by a bereavement may use this service.
Social Prescribing
Patients of the Wansbeck PCN (Seaton Park, Bedlingtonshire, Gables or Guidepost GP Surgeries), can use this service.
No. All of our services are delivered completely FREE of charge.
We are open Monday - Friday between 9am - 4:30pm.
Our last counselling session(s) for each day will start at 3:30pm.
Please Note: We are not a Crisis Team nor are we available 24/7. Should you require any urgent support, click here for a list of available options.
We currently offer a blended approach with a mix of remote and in person support.
Remote support via phone or a video call is the primary method of delivery for a lot of clients currently.
Face-to-face appointments are available where there is a risk and vulnerability has been identified. Necessary safeguarding procedures must be followed by both staff and clients.
In person appointments may vary and will also depend on counselling availability.
Typically 7 sessions are available. In certain circumstances more be made available, but this is on a case-by-case basis.
If you feel you no longer require our services, speak to you counsellor, coach or worker to see about ending with them sooner.
All of our services are completely voluntary and you are under no obligation from us to keep attending. If you feel our services are not for you or are no longer required, you can request to end them.
Please get in touch with us if you are unable to attend a session, otherwise this can end up costing the service money.
We understand that things might crop-up last minute and you may not be able to attend an appointment.
We ask that you let us know in advance if you are unable to attend and provide us with a reason. We will then attempt to reschedule the appointment to a suitable time.
Failure to attend two consecutive appointments without formally cancelling or without notice will result in you being discharged from the service.
No, the services are not mandatory, meaning you are not forced to take part. We ask that if you do decide you no longer wish to participate to let your counsellor, coach or worker know promptly.
We only share information where required by law or with carefully selected contractors and specialists to help us provide our services. We only share Data with other companies who are GDPR or ISO 27001 compliant. We are careful to minimise such sharing.
We may also share your personal Data if:
- The Law or a public authority says we must share that Data
- We need to share personal Data in order to establish or defend our legal rights, this includes providing personal Data to others for the purposes of preventing fraud and reducing credit risk to any other successors in title to our business
- There is a safeguarding issue
Please see our Privacy Policy for full details.
Once we have received a referral from you, the next steps are:
- You will be contacted to arrange an assessment/triage. This is completed over the phone with the client - please note, due to the large volume of referrals we are receiving and being a charity with a small team of dedicated staff and volunteers it may take up to 4 weeks to complete the triage/assessment process.
- Once this has been completed the client will either be signposted to another organisation if we are unable to offer support or be added to our waiting list for a counselling appointment – our current wait times for counselling are over 6 months, although we are working hard to reduce these wait times.
Feel free to have a look at the self-help page of our website where you will find some useful information, resources and other places to go for support.
