Vera French Community Mental Health Center

Vera French CMHC is a comprehensive mental health provider with a wide range of services to treat and support individuals with mental health/behavioral health challenges. Outpatient Services assist all age groups in Scott County and the surrounding area. Most individuals and families can be treated as outpatient. We offer services at reduced rates to qualifying Scott County residents. Services include individual group and family mental health services. Pine Knoll Residential Program provides multilevel residential treatment for adults with severe and persistent mental illness by incorporating structured therapeutic living situations and individualized treatment plans. We help people reach the highest level of achievement possible while improving their quality of life. Outreach Programs reach out to help people known to have difficulty accessing traditional mental health services. These programs serve disadvantaged populations including: families homeless elderly and nursing facility residents. Adult Partial Hospital Program provides intensive outpatient treatment within a structured therapeutic environment. The structured environment offers the opportunity to avoid hospitalization or transitional support from hospital to the community. Community Support Programs enhance the lives of seriously mentally ill residents in Scott County who live independently. We work to improve individual quality of life while providing a broad range of psychosocial support services. Case Management helps people make informed decisions regarding opportunities and services and coordinate all services to meet individual needs. Frontier Community Support Program offers assistance with activities of daily living including money management medication management and problem solving socialization and crisis intervention. JobLink assists individuals striving to enter the workforce to become successful employees. Employment consultants teach interviewing skills job-seeking techniques and other skills needed to gain employment. We also assist individuals in obtaining and maintaining employment. Rummage Closet is a retail store where donated items are sold to the public at modest prices. Our store employees gain meaningful workplace experience by building work and social skills. Interaction with the public also helps to combat the stigma of mental illness. School-Based Mental Health Services Program allows children in need access to comprehensive mental health care in Scott County Elementary Schools served by this program. The mission is to enter the child?s world and collaborate with the child family and school to improve a child?s readiness to learn to form supportive and constructive relationships to increase the time a child spends in the classroom to increase parental involvement and to manage and maximize the child?s mental health treatment. Supported Community Living Program promotes independence and maximizes an individual?s ability to function independently in the community and is available for those with serious mental illness who want to learn and practice skills necessary to be successful in achieving their personal goals. History of Vera French ? Established in 1949 the Scott County Mental Health Center was one of three outpatient psychiatric clinics formed in Iowa in response to the 1946 National Mental Health Centers Act providing diagnostic and referral services for those unable to afford private care. ? In 1967 the Center began to provide the five essential mental health services to the community including outpatient day treatment inpatient emergency and consultation services. In 1969 with over $400 000 in community support applied toward a matching federal construction grant and with Mercy Hospital (now Genesis Medical Center) offering available land on their campus the current Center facility opened in February 1972. The professional staff had grown from twelve to twenty-seven full-time positions. Fifty volunteers complement the Center's work. ? The Center expanded its programming to include residential care halfway house services drug and alcohol abuse services and community support programming for the chronically mentally ill. Financing moved from 'public' to 'public/private' as Federal and State government transferred responsibility back to the local community. ? Vera French M.D. Ph.D. was acknowledged for her leadership and contributions by renaming the Center in her honor in 1982. Dr. French served as the Director from 1968 until her retirement in 1980. Under her leadership the community the Center Board of Directors and the staff turned dreams of developing comprehensive services for the mentally ill into reality. ? The years 1985 through 1989 were marked by significant program expansion when the Vera French Community Mental Health Center (VFc) in cooperation with Scott County developed community support case management and vocational services programs. The Center initiated community outreach programs to serve target populations including elderly homeless and disadvantaged families. ? In 1985 the Center Board established the Vera French Foundation (VFf) in order to continue its mission in an increasingly complex public and private care delivery system. The mission of the Foundation includes identification and development of multiple funding sources to support the goals of the Center. In 2001 with initial capital committed by the Bechtel Trust the VFf in cooperation with VFc established the School-Based Mental Health Services Program. Today this program has expanded to serve over 1000 elementary school children and their families in all four school districts in Scott County. ? In 1987 the Center entered into a lease agreement with Scott County whereby Vera French assumed responsibility for the operation of the Pine Knoll Residential Facility with Scott County retaining ownership of the property. Pine Knoll offers residential treatment for Scott County residents with persistent mental illness allowing transition as appropriate to community living. ? In 1990 the Center began working with governments and community agencies to address the shortage of affordable low-income housing. Recommendation from this study included the formation of a separate non-profit housing development corporation. The Vera French Housing Corporation (VFh) was formed in October 1994 to assist persons with long term mental illness obtain permanent affordable housing that is linked to the Center's support services. Since that time over 115 low-income housing units have been created to serve Scott County residents with serious mental illness. ? Today the three corporations continue the Vera French mission. While each has its own goals corporate bylaws and governing board the respective logos emphasize the interrelatedness to the Vera French mission. Collectively the Vera French corporations employ just over one hundred fifty staff at six locations throughout Davenport and Bettendorf.

Vera French Community Mental Health Center will enhance the mental health of all in our community by providing quality accessible and comprehensive care.