Thursday, September 5, 2013

UIS partners with Family Service Center to offer counseling

After a hiatus of nearly a decade, Family Service Center is again offering community counseling services with a boost from the University of Illinois Springfield.

“By leveraging the resources we have here and in the community, we hope to respond to the unmet mental health needs,” said Erin Predmore, executive director of Family Service Center.

The program will use master’s degree-level interns from the UIS Department of Human Development Counseling working under the supervision of a licensed counselor with more than 15 years’ experience.

“They said, ‘Let’s just find the resources to do it ourselves,’ and contacted our program,” said Ann McCaughan, associate professor of human development counseling and clinical experience coordinator for the UIS program. “It sounded like an awesome opportunity for our students, working with real-world situations and people who need our services.”

“It’s neat when students can provide services to people who otherwise wouldn’t get mental health care,” McCaughan said.

The story was published in The State Journal-Register on September 5, 2013.

Read the article online