PHD Celebrates 45 Years of Service to Women and Families In the Community

2016 marks the 45th anniversary of Preservation of Human Dignity. For those not familiar with how PHD was founded, can you please share the history?

DC: PHD began in 1969 with the beautiful vision of one woman – Marion Stocker. She began supporting women with unplanned pregnancies through a hotline out of her own kitchen. She would schedule appointments for them at local hospitals because pregnancy tests were not readily available at the store at that time. PHD offered support and referrals after test results were given to ensure the health and well-being of these women. Since then, PHD has evolved to a comprehensive center for mental health treatment for mothers. Our vision continues to be helping and serving our client. This organization is unique because, really, there are no other “PHDs” out there.

BK: We are continuing to support mothers and families as they journey through parenthood. Whether they are struggling with postpartum depression, grief due to the loss of a pregnancy or infant, balancing their careers with parenting, or other challenges that come with pregnancy and parenting, PHD is here to help them identify the stressors of life and how to find healthy ways to manage.

DC: Stress on the mother today is very high. We help support the underserved. Mental health counseling isn’t always easily available under the Affordable Healthcare Act. At PHD we don’t accept insurance, so we can see the client right away and not turn anyone away due to the inability to pay. We offer a sliding scale and have no geographical boundaries. We serve anyone who comes through our door. In 2015, we recorded over 8,500 visits to PHD; that includes all services in the agency, which doubles our visits from 2014. This is a huge testimony to our organization and to a fact that our services are needed.

Describe a few of the “pinnacle” moments for PHD. What were the key points in our history that has brought us to where we are today?

DC: I want to make really clear that without our private donors and volunteers, we couldn’t survive, we couldn’t exist. Our volunteers’ time results in services that would cost PHD at least $500,000 a year. Our faithful private donors generously contribute to our annual appeal year after year and support our events. We have evolved and many changes have occurred. It’s important that people understand who we are and who we are not. We are a counseling center for maternal health and well-being offering professional counseling services, case management, educational programs, and support services, such as Baby & Maternity Closet. PHD Educational Outreach promotes parent/youth communication through education on such topics as successful relationships, healthy sexuality, and anti-bullying. The programs are focused on students and parents, and are presented at public, private and alternative schools, and community organizations. We are not a medical facility; we are not politically or religiously affiliated. We are here for the client, to meet her where she is at in life, provide support without judgment, and without offering opinions. To answer your question, the key points in our history that have brought us to where we are today are our faithful donors and volunteers, our dedicated staff and board of directors, and the fact that we adapt to changing times while staying faithful to our mission and vision.

You both have put your heart and soul into the mission of this nonprofit. What has been the most satisfying part of leading PHD? Where does your passion come from?

DC: I have a passion for maternal mental health and wellness and for helping people in general, but especially women. My first experience with PHD was in 1994. I started as an intake coordinator on the hotline phones for pregnancy help and education and absolutely loved it. That experience prompted me to get a master’s degree in clinical social work. Being a mother and a grandmother myself, it is important to me to help other mothers feel good about themselves and empower them to live healthy, happy lives. Putting together my nursing and clinical social work experiences and being a mother is a beautiful combination for me. I love working at PHD and my favorite thing of all is seeing the clients getting counseling or having case managers help educate them on really important issues related to their health and their children’s health and well-being. By educating them on SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), Shaken Baby Syndrome, among other topics, we are really helping save some precious lives. I had many roles at PHD, from intake coordinator, to serving on the board of directors for six years, to Clinical Director, but being able to lead the agency into the future is my favorite role of all and I am grateful for this opportunity.

BK: For me, throughout my life people have always come to me for help and guidance. During one of my undergrad internships, I was working with children who had difficulties with social, academic and behavioral skills. I noticed that a lot of the issues they struggled with were not handled well by their parents. These children lacked a healthy environment at home and I realized how crucial a parent’s influence is on their child’s behaviors. After that experience, I knew I wanted to work with parents to truly make a difference in lives of mothers and families. I feel that this is my calling and I can fulfill it here at PHD.

How do we take care of the clients who walk through our door?

BK: The greeter is the first person to see the client and provide her with initial paperwork. One of the more important questions that are included on the form is: “Rate your general satisfaction with life at present.” Many other places where our clients receive services do not ask that question and it’s really important for us to know their mental state because ultimately, that’s what our work is here. Based on their answers and their scores on depression and anxiety assessments, we determine what services are appropriate. If it is case management, then they will have an appointment with one of our trained volunteer case managers for an interview who sets them up for educational classes, support, and referrals to the community, if needed. If the client needs counseling, then we will schedule her with one of our master’s level counselors, where she can describe her current symptoms and the counselor can collect her mental health history. This allows our clinicians to identify what is going on and form a treatment plan to help the client.

DC: We are a counseling center for maternal mental health. We see a lot of our clients for a couple years and to even better determine their mental state, in addition to the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, we added two more screenings for perinatal and postpartum depression. Around 10 months postpartum, hormones change, so we are catching anxiety and depression using these scales, which are self administered. Our goal is to have a seamless level of care flow between case management and counseling so clients can go back and forth based on what their needs are and don’t just get stuck in a category here. If we determine that there is a higher level of care needed, then we will refer them to an appropriate service agency.

Among our clients are families with children under the age of three. Why do we stop at three?

BK: Our focus is on pregnancy and the first three years due to the importance of maternal health and child development. We recognize that this is a crucial time in child development as their bodies and minds are growing at a rapid rate and a new mother’s health and wellness is often overlooked and underscreened. Maternal depression can be considered a risk factor in the development of children, so PHD provides vital services to the community to support healthy women, babies, and families. There are a number of other community agencies that focus on childhood development that we refer to once our clients age out.

What are the biggest challenges for PHD?

DC: In terms of clients, it’s transportation. 80% of them live at or below the poverty level and don’t always have money for gas or don’t own or have access to a car. They often have such crisis in their lives that they have to respond to immediately before even coming to the agency.

In terms of funding, it is a difficult time for small nonprofits like ours. We don’t rely on state funding and our best success has been reaching out to private donors in the community who believe in our mission. They are truly the angels behind PHD. We also submit grants and receive township funding, but the competition is very high and we are not always successful. On the other hand, due to some other agencies closing that solely relied on state funding, we received more clients and are grateful for the private donors that support PHD allowing us to continue to do the work we do.

What are your hopes, your vision for PHD moving forward?

BK: We have very high hopes for our vision! We just hired our first male therapist who will be leading a dads support group starting in the spring. We want to continue to expand services to partners and fathers as they are a crucial part of a child’s development and family unit. We are also looking to focus on the struggles related to going through infertility. This is a huge need and we recognize that there is a lack of mental health services to assist through this emotional process. There are so many challenges that come with infertility, not just physically, but also emotionally. The lack of psychological help is obvious and we would like to fill that void. It is a big undertaking though. First, we need to raise funds to get our staff fully trained and educated

DC: Once again, I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has supported PHD through all these years. We feel very fortunate to have been able to provide services to women and their families in the community for 45 years and hope to continue our work for many more years to come! !;#