Easterseals DuPage & Fox Valley in Villa Park, one of Endeavor Health’s Community Investment Fund (CIF) inaugural partners since 2022, has integrated mental healthcare into their therapy services and support programming, offering holistic care for the children that they serve along with the parents, siblings, and other family members.
Easterseals provides physical, speech and occupational therapies to children with developmental delays and disabilities, and support to families. While mental health is often separated out at other clinics, at Easterseals, mental health providers are integrated into the services offered.
“While mental health has always been sort of a support service, our partnership with Endeavor [Health] really allowed us to make it a core part of our services,” said Theresa Forthofer, president and CEO of Easterseals.
In fact, the partnership has helped Easterseals grow from two social workers to 11 full-time team members, including a care coordinator and a bilingual psychologist. Together, the team went from serving 91 clients to more than 750 today. They have expanded mental health services and removed the barrier to mental healthcare, including:
- Screening, diagnosing and providing treatment for children with disabilities
- Interdisciplinary collaboration with physical, speech and occupational therapies
- Providing mental health services to parents and other family members to strengthen and help stabilize the whole family
“That’s what’s so unique about Easterseals. We’re in there to support the medical trauma, the social emotional factors that play a role in a child’s anxiety around that appointment. But we also are there for the families and the parents and the caregivers,” said Brittany Wilkie, director of mental health and family support at Easterseals.
The organization provides comprehensive services to families in the community, including occupational, physical, and speech-language therapies, mental health, nutrition, audiology, autism services and more.
