MARIA DROSTE SERVICES OF COLORADO
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Mission Statement
We provide accessible, community-centered, high-quality mental health counseling and clinical training. We serve those seeking healthier lives, regardless of ability to pay.
About This Cause
Maria Droste Counseling Center’s (MDCC) mission is to serve people who need access to counseling regardless of their ability to pay. Since its inception in 1989, MDCC has improved the lives of thousands of individuals and families by helping them overcome obstacles such as job loss, emotional trauma, poverty, illness, and depression. The organization was founded to bridge the gaps in available mental health care for underserved, economically disadvantaged populations in Denver. Today, MDCC continues to serve the most vulnerable members of the community by helping them achieve self-sufficiency, strengthen their family relationships, and improve their quality of life. MDCC is on the forefront of the changing mental health care landscape and is committed to providing and creating access to effective behavioral health services by: ● Offering counseling services for the uninsured, underinsured, and working poor, ensuring that no one is turned away because of an inability to pay; ● Raising awareness of the importance of mental health and behavioral health care services to those in need and the community at large; ● Locating and providing mental health services in communities with the highest needs; ● Training future professionals in mental and behavioral health care to be providers in integrated care facilities. MDCC staff members are committed to providing high-quality and affordable counseling services to low-income and at-risk children, adults, and families in metro-Denver. MDCC strives to assist, encourage, and empower people in their efforts to achieve the following goals for program participants: Reduce symptoms of mental illness or emotional distress; Achieve stability and self-sufficiency; Sustain employment; Improve interpersonal and family relationships; Ensure the healthy development of children. MDCC actuates its mission through four main programs, which increase access to mental health services by reducing or eliminating barriers to care such as cost, transportation, translation, and stigma. Programs include: ● Children First - Through counseling, mentoring, and support at schools, the Children First program provides at-risk children and their families with the personalized attention and support necessary to facilitate positive change. MDCC provides comprehensive counseling and therapy services to more than 470 children in 18 elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as their families and school communities. ● Options - Serves those not helped by the public mental health care system who lack adequate insurance or the income necessary to obtain counseling through other resources. Options is strategically designed to identify at-risk clients experiencing serious emotional and situational problems, working individually with each to resolve issues and promote improvements in daily life, functioning, self-sufficiency, and stability. To ensure access, MDCC offers counseling on a need-based sliding-fee scale, with sessions offered for as low as $5. ● Integrated Behavioral Health Care (Integrated Care) - Co-locates mental health services at partner sites throughout the metro-Denver, minimizing or eliminating barriers such as transportation, time, and money to ensure all those in need of health care receive it. Partners include Kavod Senior Life, Mayfair Internal Medicine, Rose Andom Center, and Hope Communities. Integrated Care provides vital access to safety-net healthcare in metro-Denver, assisting individuals, families, people who are undocumented, seniors, and refugees to receive high quality mental health care they would otherwise go without. ● Clinical Training - Engages 24 graduate-level interns and 9 post-graduate fellows from university counseling programs in Colorado to provide counseling for Options, Children First, and Integrated Care. Interns receive weekly in-services training, gain direct clinical experience, and participate in weekly clinical supervision provided by MDCC’s highly experienced licensed therapists. Under the supervision of the licensed practitioners, interns provide approximately 15-20 hours of counseling services per week. In 2016, MDCC launched its fellowship program, which hosts a cohort of 8-12 fellows each year for up to two years. Fellows provide counseling services while receiving a stipend and supervision from the organization’s licensed therapists as they seek to meet the requirements needed for licensure. Interns and fellows receive ongoing training in areas such as treatment approaches, cultural awareness, consultation, and supervision techniques. As a testament to increased workforce readiness, MDCC has hired at least one of their own fellows for the past two years in a row, and 100% of interns have gained employment after completing the program. MDCC has trained approximately 675 interns since its inception, and its first two-year fellowship cohort graduated in Spring 2019. MDCC was recently honored with the Excellence in Training Award from the University of Denver, Graduate School of Professional Psychology, International Disaster Psychology Master’s program, honoring supervisors and training programs at field placement sites who have made outstanding contributions to the training of University of Denver graduate students.