ACON counselling and beyond

To access counselling at ACON, you need to ring an intake officer on (02) 9206 2000 or walk in to the ACON Sydney office between 11am and 1pm Monday to Friday. The intake officer will talk to you about what you’re looking for and assess the best and most appropriate service for you – whether it's here at ACON or elsewhere.

• If daytime counselling is most suitable for you, you'll be matched with one of our experienced counselling staff members
• If you're better suited to receiving counselling in our evening programme, a coordinator of the after hours’ counselling program will work to match you with a suitable counsellor
• If you're better suited to a service that's not provided by ACON, you'll be supported to take up an appropriate external service.

While we're happy to receive referrals from people other than the client themselves (such as referrals from GPs, probation officers and other health care professionals) we believe that self-referral is the best sign of a commitment to counselling. In almost all circumstances, we'll need to receive a call from the person wanting the counselling before we can proceed any further.

Eligibility

Because ACON Daytime Counselling is a free service, during busy periods we need to prioritise people who are:

• Newly diagnosed with HIV
• Financially disadvantaged
• Experiencing SSDV or homophobic violence
• Experiencing the effects of a recent trauma

If you do not fit into one of these categories and would like to receive counselling at ACON, please be willing to wait until we can allocate a counsellor to you.

Accessing the GP Enhanced Primary Care service

People who want to access our GP Enhanced Primary Care service need to be referred by a GP from one of the GP surgeries from where the social workers are based. These include Holdsworth House Medical Practice, East Sydney Doctors and Taylor Square Private Clinic.

Newly diagnosed with HIV?

If you're newly diagnosed with HIV, you can call ACON during office hours and you'll be contacted by one of our counsellors within one working day.

More info

Contact: ACON Intake and Assessment Officer

Tel: (02) 9206 2000
Free Call: 1800 063 060
Hearing Impaired: (02) 9283 2088

Email: acon@acon.org.au