Community Collaboration

Universities: Missouri Western State University and Northwest Missouri State University – Family Guidance Center employs a full-time Qualified Mental Health Professionals (QMHP) to work with students at the university when behavioral health issues arise or when crises occur. Family Guidance Center staff is able to provide brief interventions, when it is needed, to keep students successful and well in their educational endeavors. This partnership allows for warm-handoffs if additional behavioral health interventions or coordination with community agencies is needed. Our employees often work hand-in-hand with campus safety, wellness centers, and residential advisors. Collaboration in this area is crucial to addressing not only the behavioral health of the students, but it also provides support to the university. The QMHPs help to providing training and tools to holistically address the behavioral health issues that may arise in their student population.

Hospitals: Emergency Room Enhancement- Family Guidance Center helps to support local emergency departments to connect to services in the community. Emergency Room Enhancement (ERE) is intended to decrease the utilization of emergency department use by addressing social determinants of health that may exist for the individual. This may include things such as assisting with access to health services, insurance coverage, community resources to improve security, etc. ERE helps to link to behavioral health resources if they are needed as well.
Law Enforcement: FGC employs staff that are embedded in the Buchanan County Jail and with the St. Joseph Police Department. FGC staff provide brief intervention in behavioral health situations that arise in the jail and on calls where the police department is dispatched. The partnership has been extremely valuable to law enforcement personnel as this allows law enforcement to get support in these scenarios, but it is also helpful to the community, given the interventions allow situations to de-escalate in the event of a crisis. De-escalation techniques utilized in crisis situations also decreases the number of individuals that may be detained by law enforcement and the number of individuals routed to local emergency rooms for behavioral health treatment.

Local Schools: Family Guidance Center staff are working in local schools to be able to support youth in our communities. The ability for staff to work with children and adolescents in the school ensures that the behavioral health needs are addressed while supporting them in their educational environments. Staff are able to work with educators, counselors, specialists, and administrators to ensure continuous interventions are provided at school and after school, as well, with the family. FGC has dedicated mobile crisis staff dedicated to the St. Joseph School District.

The Family Guidance Center Corporate Compliance program was established in 2001. The compliance program is the process that helps all of our employees, administrators and Board comply with the Federal and State laws and regulations related to their jobs. The purpose of this program is to assist and ensure compliance with the law and ethical standards of FGC.