Family Counseling Center
Healthy Minds Lead to Healthy Futures
This year, the Family Counseling Center in Gloversville celebrates its 50th anniversary stronger than ever after attaining the designation of a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) in 2024.
The center’s staff provides mental health care and related support services to help people live the healthiest lives possible. The CCBHC designation has expanded its reach significantly in a time when mental health issues are on the rise, making mental healthcare services needed more than ever before.
According to a 2021 report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), mental health conditions affect more than one in five adults. There has also been an increase in mental, emotional, developmental and behavioral disorders in children ages 3 to 17, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
COVID exacerbated mental health issues. “We’ve seen a significant rise in both children and adults ever since COVID, a 25 percent increase across the spectrum,” said Michael Countryman, the center’s Chief Executive Officer. “Historically, we never saw anybody below the age of five, and now there are preschoolers needing help.”
Fostering A Healthy Workforce
The Family Counseling Center’s CCBHC designation has allowed the organization to increase its staff and resources to meet the mental health needs of the area’s population, helping to create a healthy workforce.
“Mental health in the workplace has become a growing priority as awareness of its impact on employee well-being and organizational performance increases,” said Sarah Preston, Disability Resource Coordinator for FMS Workforce Solutions Career Center. “Supporting mental health not only benefits employees but also boosts engagement, reduces absenteeism, and enhances productivity.”
Countryman pointed out that about half of people who have mental health events do not seek services because of long waiting lists. With the new CCBHC designation and subsequent addition of 50 to 60 employees, the center is able to meet the demand for care. “Access is no longer a barrier,” he said. “With additional staff, we’re obviously able to treat more people with our therapists working in conjunction with primary care providers. We have no wait list.”
The Family Counseling Center consolidated its direct care providers into one location to make it easier for clients. Administrative staff and non-direct care providers moved to a different building nearby. Being able to provide mental health services locally means employees can spend more time with their families and be productive at work,
Countryman pointed out. For example, if an employee uses the center’s virtual services, leaving the work area may not be necessary, saving time.
The center also works with employers to provide services for employees. “Supporting mental health not only benefits employees, but also boosts engagement, reduces absenteeism and enhances productivity,” Preston said.
One service the Family Counseling Center offers is helping people to find jobs and being more productive in their everyday lives, said the center’s chief operating officer Peter Lawrence.
“An employee is not going to be a productive member of their team if all their care needs are not met,” Countryman said. “The CCBHC designation gives us the tools to meet those employees’ needs outside of work so that they can be a productive member of the team when they’re on the clock.”
An Integrated Approach
The CCBHC designation, which went into operation on July 1, 2025, enables the center to coordinate a client’s care with other providers instead of providing services largely in isolation from the rest of a client’s healthcare providers. “This gives us the structure and the background to be able to work extremely close with them and treat the whole person,” Countryman said.
Staff work with individuals and families in an integrated approach to help them navigate the challenges they face. For example, center staff can now facilitate communication between primary care providers and their therapists. “It’s very much a team approach,” Countryman said. “With the CCBHC, we have the resources, structure, and position to facilitate that communication across the spectrum.”
Happy Kids, Happy Parents
The Family Counseling Center is dedicated to serving children as well as adults. “We partner with the school district in helping them address some behavioral health needs,” Lawrence said. “It has strengthened relationships between students and caregivers.”
Increasingly, schools are seeing mental health concerns that stem from social media. “There are issues that have always been around that families and children face,” said Northville Central School District superintendent Dr. Sarah Chauncey. “They’re not new, but some of what we have now is invasive social media and 24/7 connection. What I’m seeing is different platforms where kids are saying and doing things that they might not do one to one in a group or personal setting. When those things are happening outside of school, they certainly creep into school.” The school district plans to take a proactive approach, including workshops for parents and children, to address this issue.
More Services
“The real benefit of the [CCBHC] designation is to be able to provide additional services,” Lawrence said. One of these is the services of a care coordinator that will help a client to connect to resources at the center and in the greater community. Others include health coaches and engagement specialists who ensure that clients go to their various appointments. Additional services include substance use disorder treatment, peer services, psychiatric medication management, school- and community-based programs, domestic violence shelters, and crisis response and mobile crisis services.
The Family Counseling Center partners with other community organizations to ensure that they do not duplicate services.
When center staff was working over a three-year-period on its application for the CCBHC designation, they realized the huge impact the center would have on people’s lives and well-being. “We quickly realized that it’s going to change our community,” Lawrence said. “We’re putting the person really at the center of what we do and really helping them reach their best life.”
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