On a regular day, children and families dealing with behavioral health issues struggle. And when a crisis hits, their situations become even more serious.
During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, those in need of behavioral health therapy are relying heavily on community organizations for support – organizations like The Guidance Center (TGC).
TGC strives to strengthen families and change lives – they do this by offering a range of services including mental health and wellness, substance use support, mentoring and more. The organization provides care to approximately 26,000 children and adults in Wayne County per year; it has more than 600 employees and 25 programs.
When the COVID-19 stay at home order went into effect, TGC immediately began the sizable undertaking to transition to telehealth.
“It was a process and quite costly to ensure staff had the necessary equipment to provide the same high-quality services to our communities,” said Kari Walker, president and CEO at The Guidance Center.
“The Children’s Foundation was the first of any of our funders to react and provided us with $10,000 within days – they removed the time-consuming processes involved with grants so we could navigate the transition to telehealth and continue providing essential services to individuals in great need.”
The transition to telehealth has allowed TGC to maintain full staff without laying off any employees; they are successfully operating behavioral health services 80% and doing all they can to serve children and families facing incredible challenges.
