Grant Spotlight: CRCC

Mission: We provide integrated care and resources to open a world of possibilities for children and young adults of all abilities.

Funded Program Description: CRCC is the only facility in the Omaha metro area offering a full continuum of comprehensive care and services for special populations while providing all children, special needs, and typical peers alike the opportunity to find security, support, and mutual understanding.  By offering a robust educational curriculum, along with nursing and therapy professionals, CRCC is unique in the Omaha community in its approach to supporting our children.

The Mental and Behavioral Health Program at CRCC offers school-based therapy services as well as outpatient therapy at CRCC’s Southwest Center location to ages 3 through 21.  Our therapists provide individual, family and group therapies utilizing evidence-based practices that are individualized to best meet the needs of each child and family served.  In the last fiscal year, we provided 2,162 therapy sessions to 178 children, teens, young adults and families.

Success of Program or Inspirational Stories: The Kim Foundation Grant contributed to the success of our program in a number of ways, a few of which are highlighted here. We are a small program yet we have our sights set on sustainable growth both in terms of adding therapists to serve more youth and adding new service delivery methods that best meet the current challenges youth, families and schools in our community are facing.  Because of grant funding, we were able to add an additional therapist to our program and meet and exceed the additional requirements related to having a provisional licensed mental health practitioner (PLMHP) on staff.  Adding a new therapist allowed us to provide more services to youth and families within partnering schools and at our CRCC Center.  Additionally, our therapists were able to provide essential, no-cost services to clients/students and families requiring additional care, case management and, school-based collaboration.  According to Dr. Rikli, Superintendent of the Papillion La Vista Community Schools, “CRCC provides a much-needed service to our students at Papillion La Vista Community Schools.  By placing therapists in our schools, students who would not have access to mental health services receive high quality therapy in an environment where they feel safe and comfortable”.

From the funding we were also able to create another outpatient therapy space at CRCC, establish a resource library of workbooks and other psychoeducational materials, and purchase needed therapeutic toys and supplies for play and sand tray therapy that can be used for both school-based and CRCC center-based services.  Our new therapy room is geared more towards teens and transition-aged adults which has allowed us to serve more community clients in this age group and also provide continuity of care to clients who have been seen at a partnering school but are currently suspended from school or switched schools, prefer to be seen outside of school, or who have graduated from a partnering high school but would like to continue services with the same provider.  In this last year we have been able to broaden our program to serve more young adults as we’ve found that it can be a stage of high-level transition and at times, vulnerability.  Bridging services from high school to next life phases through outpatient services at CRCC has been a valuable intervention and we hope to continue to grow this aspect of our program.

Since receiving the grant, our therapists were able to complete specialized in-person training such as play therapy, sand tray therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy which has and will assist our therapists in providing enhanced specialized care to different populations and for a wider range of needs.

Furthermore, because of the support of the grant, we were able to strengthen our mental and behavioral health department with the future in mind in ways such as creating a school-based clinical supervisor role, taking steps towards implementing a new EHR system that can improve scheduling, attendance and documentation, improving our training program, and increasing the overall supervision and consultation for our therapists.  Additionally, because of the Kim Foundation Grant, we were also able to participate in more community outreach providing literature and information about our services to those in schools and our community.

Other Comments: In Sum, the grant allowed us to offer additional and enhanced therapy services and case management while affording us the resources to strengthen our program from the foundation up so we can expand and diversify our services in the future to best meet the needs in our community and fill in the gaps of service for those in need.  We are so grateful for the Kim Foundation and the light it has shown and spread on mental health awareness and for the support of the mental health programs in our community, including ours, that are touching so many lives in a healing and transformational way.

Contact:
Laura Hammond, LIMHP, Director of Clinical Operations
402.895.4000
Lhammond@CRCComaha.org
crccomaha.org