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Northwestern
Counseling and Support Services to expand facilities in Vermont
(February
2008 Issue)
By Catherine Robertson Souter
The town of St. Albans, Vermont, a burg of close to 5,000 nestled
between the Green Mountains and Lake Champlain in the northern corner
of the state, will be seeing a major improvement in access to family
and child mental health care within the next 12 to 20 months.
The county's primary source of mental health care, Northwestern
Counseling and Support Services (NCSS) has received approval from
the state's Departments of Mental Health and Disabilities; and Aging
and Independent Living to begin a $3.5 million expansion. NCSS plans
to construct a 22,000-square-foot building across the street from
its current site in St. Albans. The new building will help the business
to consolidate services for children and families. These services
are currently being provided in several locations throughout the
city.
"Right now, we have one site for our Family Center for children
ages birth to six, another for children with developmental disabilities
and autism and another site that does intake for adolescent services,"
says Ted Mable, executive director of NCSS. "We are looking to centralize
our child and family services in one location."
The building project is waiting for a state storm water permit,
held up because of concerns about a brook that runs across the property.
NCSS has proposed creating a temporary reservoir to protect the
brook from pollutants during the building process so that construction
can begin in April once the frost has lifted. If that plan is not
approved, construction would be delayed until late September after
the state has created a permanent reservoir, Mable says.
"It will take about a year to build and move in to the new facility,"
he says. "If we can start in April, we would set a goal of June
1, 2009, but it all depends on when we can start."
The new facility will free up room in the current building, space
that would be renovated to increase services for adults.
"We have experienced a lot of growth at NCSS," says Mable. "This
facility was built when we had 94 employees and we now have 370."
Including crisis services, NCSS sees approximately 10,000 clients
per year, according to Mable, and nearly a quarter of that number
would pass through the new child and family services center.
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