Community Partner Spotlight: Clarity Guidance Center

Organization Name: Clarity Child Guidance Center (Clarity CGC)

When was your organization founded / how long have you served in the San Antonio Community: Clarity CGC, founded in 1886, is the only nonprofit in South Texas providing a continuum of mental health care for children ages 3-17. Our services include outpatient care, day treatment services, acute inpatient care at our children’s psychiatric hospital, and emergency services in our new, 24-hour, even day-a-week Crisis Assessment Center. Nearly 9,000 kids receive care annually, with over 40,000 outpatient visits and 17,500 inpatient days in our 66-bed hospital. Wraparound supports include case management for families as well as education continuation for our patients via our on-campus school. Play with Purpose™, our art, music and play therapy program is integrated into our treatment plans.

We are a proud United Way agency and Joint Commissioned Accredited. We partner with several nursing schools, The University of Texas Health Science Center as a training hospital for child and adolescent psychiatry residents/fellows, and the pediatrics program at the Baylor College of Medicine. 

What is your Mission Statement: Clarity CGC’s mission is to help children, adolescents, and families overcome the disabling effects of mental illness and improve their ability to function successfully at home, at school, and in the community. We are dedicated to providing a continuum of services to meet each child’s needs regardless of their ability to pay. As a result of our services, we help heal young minds and hearts.

How does your organization impact our San Antonio Community: Clarity CGC is the only nonprofit providing a continuum of care for children 17 and younger. As a result, we are poised to provide care to nearly 9,000 youth. Clarity CGC is helping to heal young minds and hearts, as nine out of ten parents report an improvement in their child following treatment, with the majority of parents citing the improvement as “significant”. These parent and guardian self-reported results mirror that of our clinical results from our Child Global Assessment Scale ratings.

Helping children during their youth is critical to achieving other important milestones. Without treatment, the one in five children who experience mental illness will drop out of school at a rate of 50%, while they are twice as likely to self-medicate through drugs and alcohol. The vast majority of mental health treatment in the United States occurs in our prison system, when it’s often too late. Worse, suicide is the second leading cause of death in Texas’ young citizens.

Helping kids when they are kids is a pathway not only to a happy and healthy childhood, but it’s critically important to our society as a whole.

What is the vision of your organization for the future of our Community: Clarity CGC seeks to be recognized as a world-class treatment center for children and adolescents that freely shares knowledge and research to inspire other communities to address this critical nationwide health issue.

We see our services continuing to grow locally because of our expansion efforts and regionally through a clinic model. We will also grow our campaign to end the stigma of mental illness, called One in Five Minds. To learn more about Clarity CGC or our campaign, visit us at www.claritycgc.org and www.1in5minds.org.

How does the Junior League of San Antonio help you fulfill your Mission: The Junior League of San Antonio is the ONLY volunteer group that is allowed direct access to our patients. We believe that children do well when they can and when they are not doing well, we work collaboratively with the young person to understand root causes and problem solve. This approach and belief system is the foundation of our unique model of care, called Claritycare^TM.

As a result of this unique model of care, and the needs for patient privacy, Clarity CGC has allowed only the volunteers from the Junior League of San Antonio to work with our young patients directly. JLSA Volunteers embody the attributes, values, and skills that our own employees bring to the care model – dignity, respect, understanding, cognitive flexibility and empathic attunement.  Together, we are healing young minds and hearts!