{"id":533528,"date":"2026-03-19T21:38:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T21:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/533528\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T21:38:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T21:38:22","slug":"wnc-nonprofits-team-up-to-provide-mental-health-counseling-for-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/533528\/","title":{"rendered":"WNC nonprofits team up to provide mental health counseling for seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 Jewish Family Services of WNC is partnering with Givens Communities to expand access to mental health counseling for senior living residents.<\/p>\n<p>Jewish Family Services (JFS) is a social services nonprofit, providing help to people of all faiths.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Barnett, JFS Executive Director, said their core programming is mental health counseling. They also focus largely on the senior community, so they decided to look for a way to merge the two.<\/p>\n<p>The nonprofit explained how mental health care is becoming an increasingly important issue for older adults. <\/p>\n<p>They added that 1 in 3 Americans 65 and older has been diagnosed with anxiety or depression. Many older adults also experience loneliness and social isolation that can worsen mental health challenges.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wlos.com\/news\/local\/asheville-meals-on-wheels-church-buncombe-county-hurricane-helene-latter-day-sainds-nonprofit-donation-vulnerable-senior-citizens-generator-community-volunteers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CHURCH DONATES GENERATOR TO NONPROFIT, ENSURING UNINTERRUPTED SERVICE TO SENIORS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Barnett said making mental health counseling available to seniors is simply JFS being true to its mission and assisting seniors. To do that, they\u2019ve partnered with Givens Communities.<\/p>\n<p>Givens Communities is a nonprofit senior living organization.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, JFS provides counseling every Friday at Givens Gerber Park in South Asheville. Next month, they plan to expand their counseling to Givens&#8217; location in Black Mountain.<\/p>\n<p>Geoffrey Cantrell, Givens Communities director of communications and PR, said their residents have welcomed the counseling services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn North Carolina, you have about 30% of people 55 and older who need some form of mental healthcare, therapy and just general support,\u201d Cantrell said.<\/p>\n<p>Cantrell said many people do not get mental healthcare support, with two of the biggest obstacles being cost and distance. This partnership with JFS has eliminated those obstacles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery individual has their own situation, their own story, as we all do and it\u2019s something that we\u2019re seeing an immediate response,\u201d Cantrell added.<\/p>\n<p>Barnett said the goal is to make people aware that these services exist.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wlos.com\/news\/local\/buncombe-county-property-assessment-ask-assessor-eric-cregger-homeowners-commissioner-drew-ball-tax-rate-appeal-process-clinics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR BUNCOMBE COUNTY PROPERTY ASSESSMENT? ASK THE COUNTY ASSESSOR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Especially as so many seniors deal with a changing reality.<\/p>\n<p>Barnett added that they aim to remove the cost barrier for mental health counseling, accepting Medicare.<\/p>\n<p>Cantrell adds that mental health is just as important as physical health. He said the two play together toward someone&#8217;s overall well-being.<\/p>\n<p>Cantrell said it\u2019s rewarding to be able to provide these services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re helping others individually, collectively, and that builds a stronger community for all of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The hope is that this is only the start of bringing counseling to senior living communities across the mountains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) \u2014 Jewish Family Services of WNC is partnering with Givens Communities to expand access to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-533528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}