Be Heard Tamariki Counselling had its official launch this week and founder Kelly Macknight said the service would provide free one-on-one counselling for children in primary and intermediate schools.
In her own experience as a parent and working in the not-for-profit sector for about six years she had noticed nothing was available for children in schools around that age, she said.
"A lot of pressure goes on teachers who see issues, but they’re not trained in how to deal with it or they don’t have time to do it."
Many children were very anxious starting school post Covid — particularly those who did not get a proper start to their school year because of lockdown, Mrs Macknight said.
"They were sort of transitioning and they may have missed some of the last primary school activities because there were no discos and things like that."
The service would deal with low to moderate issues and if there were more serious things going on it would
refer pupils to other agencies, Mrs Macknight said.
Counsellor Imogen Clifford would visit four Dunedin schools one day a week and her services would be free for the schools and parents.
The service was free of charge to remove any financial barriers and it was available at schools so parents would not have to worry about picking up or dropping off their children, Mrs Macknight said.
