The Rev. Laurie Anzilotti of St. Francis Episcopal Church in Eureka was in a bind.
She knew people in her congregation who needed professional therapy services, but she didn’t have the connections with local agencies to help them.
Anzilotti said last May she began asking other faith leaders, such as Pastor Dan Denbow at Eureka Community Church, Pastor Dennis Guard from Central Baptist Church and the Rev. Joe Kempf at Most Sacred Heart Church, if they also were having difficulties finding reliable resources for their congregants.
“I asked, ‘What do you do when you have this problem?’ Every one of them said, ‘Oh yeah, there’s nowhere that isn’t 25-30 minutes away, where I feel comfortable sending people,’” Anzilotti said.
Enter the Tri-County Behavioral Health Collaborative.
In December, Anzilotti gathered additional faith leaders, community leaders, businesspeople and clinicians to conduct an informal needs assessment with the common consensus that a collaborative must be formed to provide and facilitate reliable therapeutic services closer to home.
By early February, the collaborative had identified a therapy service provider, built and launched a website and was working to open a clinic at St. Francis for in-person therapy sessions. The clinic is set to open in June.
The mission statement of the collaborative is “to provide timely, accessible, ongoing and high-quality behavioral health care for individuals and families in Franklin, Jefferson and southwest St. Louis counties.”
Following a Feb. 5 meeting, several people and organizations signed on in support of the collaborative, including Michelle Horvath with Compass Health Network, Kevin Drollinger, president and executive director of Provident Behavioral Health, Beth Gould with the Eureka UPS Store and many others.
“Looking ahead, we have a commitment to growing the collaborative,” Anzilotti said at the meeting. “What skills, connections or gifts do you have that might help the mission? Beth (Gould) is a networking expert; Joe (Kempf) is the leader of the largest faith community in the Eureka area. Whatever it is you bring, that’s what we’re going to collaborate with, because that’s the gifts God has given us, and it’s more than enough.”
For information on the collaborative, visit tricobehavioralhealth.org.
The collaborative identified On Track Pediatric Therapy, 54 Legends Parkway Suite 157, in Eureka as the service provider for the organization. The therapy practice is co-owned by husband-and-wife duo Brandon Valley and Jackie Budde.
Valley said On Track had a booth at Eureka Days this past year, next to Anzilotti’s booth, and they struck up a conversation about potentially providing services. On Track also worked with Trailblazer Academy, a microschool for children ages 3-14 operated out of St. Francis. The school is ceasing services in May.
“Laurie said, ‘I wish we had someone to refer people to if there’s a need in Eureka,’” Valley said. “I said, ‘Well, we work with kids, but insurance-wise, it’s not different.’ We already have all the big, long credentials and certifications. So, I said, ‘I bet we can find some counselors, and we can get going.’”
Anzilotti said On Track already has the infrastructure in place to schedule and provide ongoing therapy and handle billing, making it easier and faster for the collaborative to refer new clients.
“Jackie and Brandon have donated untold hours to creating content (for the collaborative’s website) and working on bringing this here to Eureka,” Anzilotti said.
In January, On Track hired three counselors to provide services for those referred through the collaborative.
■ Lauren Atherton is a licensed social worker with a master’s degree in social work from Washington University. According to her profile on the collaborative’s website, she has clinical experience working with individuals impacted by foster care, LGBTQ clients, caregivers of children with disabilities and extensive trauma histories.
■ Sara Forrester is a licensed clinical social worker with a master’s degree in social work from the University of Missouri. Her key areas of focus include supporting individuals who have anxiety, depression, PTSD and borderline personality disorder, according to the website.
■ Tamara Marcinkiewicz has a background in school counseling and holds a master’s degree in professional counseling from Lindenwood University. Her personal faith background is Christian, and she can offer faith-informed support for clients who desire it, the website said.
As of Feb. 5, Valley said the counselors have already seen eight people, referred to them by Anzilotti, Denbow and others.
He said On Track accepts all insurance plans for therapy services and is currently applying for grants that would allow the counselors to provide services for low or no cost to clients.
Denbow has served as lead pastor at Eureka Community Church for the last three years. While he lived in Jefferson County for most of his life, he said at the Feb. 5 meeting that he lost all his referral resources when he moved to Iowa for a few years.
“When I came back, everything had changed,” he said. “I had zero referrals. I didn’t know who I could refer to for help with people in need, whether that was their electricity or utility bills, for clothes, hygiene products or anything like that. Now, I have three qualified therapists who can help not only my people, but your people, also the police department’s people and the school districts’ people. We now have resources.”
Forrester said at the Feb. 5 meeting that religion and behavioral therapy “do not have to be enemies.”
“We do not tell people not to believe in God,” she said. “We pray with them in session if they ask us to. It is our job to make sure that we meet their needs.”
Anzilotti said the collaborative is “building the airplane as we’re flying it,” and there are still many details to work out.
For example, she foresees needing to hire an executive director to handle day-to-day operations, but for now, the collaborative can begin providing services to those in need.
Kevin Drollinger with Provident Behavioral Health agreed with Anzilotti.
“This sounds like a great base and a great start,” he said. “The problem with waiting until you get all the I’s dotted, and all the T’s crossed is you never get anything done.
“You have to be able to move forward and not worry about a little stumble here or there.”
The collaborative will next meet at 8 a.m. April 30 at St. Francis Episcopal Church, 602 Rockwood Arbor Drive.
Anzilotti said the meeting will be used to assess the collaborative’s work and check if any changes need to be implemented.
“We’ll get back together and ask how it’s going,” she said. “Now that we have eyes to see and ears to hear, are we noticing other gaps in our region, in the people who we serve?”