History

Delaware Guidance Services for Children & Youth, Inc. (DGS) opened in September 1953 as the Wilmington Child Guidance Center. The Center was established through the efforts of the Wilmington Junior League and Wilmington Pediatrician Dr. Robert O. Y. Warren to promote mental health by offering psychiatric diagnosis and treatment for emotionally disturbed children. A group of community volunteers, including Junior League members, physicians, clergymen, and professionals, came together to serve as the agency’s first Board of Directors. The Board raised funds to run the clinic for a year, found rent-free quarters in the Sunday School Building of Trinity Episcopal Church, and assembled a qualified staff including a psychiatrist, a psychiatric social worker, a part-time psychologist, and a secretary-bookkeeper. In the first year, 151 cases were treated and a long waiting list developed. This waiting list served as evidence to Wilmington’s growing need for mental health services for children, a need that has carried DGS since it first opened its doors  many years ago.

The service goals of the new Center were first direct service to children and their parents, and second, service to the community at-large through schools, childcare, family agencies and medical facilities. A long-range goal was for the Center to become a training facility for professional staff. 

Initially, the Center’s primary focus was on direct service to clients. The Center was supported in its first four years with funds from the Junior League, the Wilmington Flower Market, a trust fund and private contributions. By 1955, the Board had succeeded in raising enough funds to rent larger quarters at Delaware Avenue and Lincoln Street and to expand its professional staff to a full team by adding another social worker. The service of the psychologist was increased to full-time and involved, in addition to testing, some therapy under the supervision of the psychiatrist. These changes enabled the Center to increase its caseload by 25%, to 201 cases, but this did not eliminate or even shorten the waiting list.

In the spring of 1957, the Wilmington Child Guidance Center was approved as an Associate Member in the American Association of Psychiatric Clinics for Children. Furthermore, it was accepted as a member of the United Fund, having been recognized as an integral part of the childcare service in Wilmington. In 1958, the Center moved to rented space at 2013 Baynard Boulevard where it remained until 1974.  A second full team, funded by the United Fund, was added in 1962. The Center had been serving the Wilmington community for close to a decade with one professional team, and the staff increase as well as changes in treatment methods were enabling the Center to see more and more children and families every year.

The Center was successful in providing treatment to individuals; however, little was being done toward the secondary goals of helping the broader community and serving as a training center. There was a growing awareness among staff and Board that the Center was not really reaching the number of children in need of the service, nor adapting its services to the changing times. The population had grown rapidly in the Wilmington area, but within the city it had declined, causing many social and economic problems. Social patterns were changing, especially among young people, which increased pressure and tensions. The United Fund, aware of these changes, began to put pressure on the Agency to broaden its services and public funding.

From 1970-1975, many changes were made in administration, service programs, and treatment methods at the Wilmington Child Guidance Center. In 1971 the Center changed its name to Delaware Guidance Services for Children and Youth, Inc. Children from any part of the state were then accepted for treatment. It was further the hope of the Board that satellite clinics would be established in other parts of the state. This was a preliminary step towards seeking public funding. Up to this time, the only income from government funds had been the Medicaid fees for service. State, county, and local government groups were approached for funds on the grounds that Delaware Guidance Services was the only private child psychiatric agency in the state and very little such service was available through public agencies. The first allocations were made by the State Legislature and the City of Newark through its Revenue Sharing Program in 1972, and continued annually thereafter.

By 1975, a number of major changes had been made. The Agency had purchased and moved into the building at 1213 Delaware Avenue, a larger and more workable space for its program. Late afternoon and evening appointments were now available to clients, and videotaping capability was added as a diagnostic and teaching aid.

With an emphasis on Family Therapy, services in connection with identified children expanded to include Medication Therapy, Individual Psychotherapy, Parent Counseling, Marriage Counseling, Behavior Management, Play Therapy and Psychological Testing.

During 1977, plans went forward to establish a branch clinic in the southern part of Delaware, and in 1978, the Dover Clinic opened two days a week with professional staff commuting from Wilmington to temporary offices in the First Baptist Church of Dover.

By the middle of 1983, the combined staff for both clinics was comprised of one full-time and two part-time child psychiatrists, eight full-time social workers, two full-time clinical psychologists, and two part-time educational specialists in learning disabilities and educational diagnosis. At this point also, the recruiting process was begun for a third full-time clinical psychologist.

A Day Treatment Program was started in late 1988 in Dover to serve children ages 6-12 who could not function and learn in a typical school setting. Funding was obtained from the Division of Child Mental Health to support the program. In 1989, three new programs were launched. Bridges, a collaborative effort between DGS and the Christina School District, was developed to work with students at-risk for school failure. A treatment program was developed to meet the emotional needs of children and their parents in families with an AIDS victim. Finally, an interdisciplinary approach to serve the treatment needs of victims of incest and other sexual abuse and their families was developed.  In 2002, children to age 14 could now receive services.

In 1992, the Sussex County United Way accepted DGS into membership and provided funding for a branch office in Georgetown. This facility was relocated to the Lewes area in 1995.

By 1994, a number of facility and equipment needs could no longer be managed through the annual budget. Therefore, the Board of Directors undertook a Capital Project. The Capital Campaign sought to raise $1.5 million to expand, renovate and furnish the Wilmington facility, to purchase a computer system that would link all DGS sites together and better prepare the Agency for changes in the health care field.

DGS developed a number of new programs between 1992 and 1998 including the following:

School Counseling Program

A number of school counseling programs developed out of the Bridges Program with Christina School District. These programs utilize DGS clinicians as therapists in the school setting in Christina and Delmar School Districts. These programs make it possible for Delaware Guidance Services to reach into the community and provide services to groups of children and families who would not otherwise be able to access the programs.

Additionally, we also provide START intervention counselors to some schools in the Christina School District.  These counselors work to ameliorate students’ difficulties in the areas of school attendance, school based behaviors, academic performance, and school health issues as well as in assisting with substance abuse screening evaluations and treatment through the provision of counseling services for the referred children and their families.  We are also providing a variety of intervention services through their Partnership Program.

Hospital Diversion Project

In 1995, DGS staff developed a hospital diversion program for adolescents and children called the FAST Team. This collaborative effort with BlueCrossBlueShield of Delaware provided intensive outpatient services to children, adolescents and their families where the risk of hospitalization was imminent.

Sussex County Day Treatment Program

In 1995, the Department of Services for Children, Youth and their Families contracted with Delaware Guidance Services to develop a Day Treatment Program for 6–12 year old children in Sussex County. The DGS Sussex Day Treatment Program opened its doors in September 1995 at a site in Lewes, Delaware, which now also houses our outpatient clinic for Sussex County.  In 2002, children to age 14 could now receive services.

Provider Network Consultant (PNC)

With health care reform taking place throughout the nation and managed care organizations now dictating much of our funding, DGS  developed a Provider Network that allows a core staff of salaried clinicians to be supplemented by consulting clinicians. This network increases our availability to children and families throughout the State, and better allows us to expand our services to the needs of the community.

ACT/ACT Now, Intensive Outpatient Treatment, Mental Health Aides Programs

Over the years we have been developing a continuum of non-residential mental health services for children. In 1997, through new contracts with the Division of Child Mental Health Services, DGS added the Access to Community Treatment (ACT) Program. The ACT Program provides a 24-hour crisis line, community based crisis response, and crisis bed care for children in crisis. This program operates out of our Dover and Lewes facilities. Additionally, we have added a statewide Intensive Outpatient Treatment Program which provides community based treatment for children at risk of hospitalization or more restrictive levels of treatment. Finally, we have added a Mental Health Aides Program in New Castle County that uses para-professional staff to work with current clients in providing support services that will improve the clients’ efforts to reach treatment goals.

As the Agency expanded its continuum of non-residential mental health services, the demand for our services continued to increase. In 1994, we served 3,900 families. In 1997, 7,600 families were served. And in 1999 over 9,000 families were served. Similar increases in the size of the budget and the number of staff employed occurred during this period. By 1999 it was clear that space had again become an issue, particularly in Kent and Sussex Counties. As a result, the Board of Directors undertook a capital campaign to raise $4.3 million to build new facilities in Dover and Lewes. These buildings would house our Crisis Program, Outpatient Services, Intensive Outpatient Services, and our Day Treatment Program in each county, as well as giving some room for expansion of services in the future. The Dover facility was completed in August 2001 and the Lewes facility was completed in June 2002. Additionally, in November 2000 DGS doubled the size of its Newark outpatient offices to serve the growing need for services in southern New Castle County. In March 2001, we leased office space in Seaford to better meet the needs of residents in western Sussex County.  In 2007, ground was broken in Seaford to build a 6,900 square foot building because of the continued demand for our services.

While this expansion was taking place, the clinical staff continued to focus their energies on providing quality services to our clients. In 1999 the Agency received Accreditation with Commendation during the JCAHO site visit. Accreditation with Commendation is JCAHO’s highest accreditation rating and during this visit DGS scored 98 out of a possible 100 points on their survey grid. The JCAHO Accreditation was renewed in 2002 and 2005.  Additionally in 2000, Delaware Guidance Services received an Achievement in Non-Profit Excellence award from the Delaware Association of Nonprofit Agencies (DANA) for excellence in program evaluation.

As our continuum of services has expanded, we have been investigating how to make our services more accessible to our clients. Our staff has been looking at ways to provide services in the community to clients who are unable to come to our offices for services. To this end, we developed a community based treatment program utilizing a wraparound treatment philosophy. In 2006, DGS continued to serve thousands of children and their families per year.  As we look to the future we expect to serve one out of every ten families in the state over the next ten years.