By Michelle Price
UCBJ Managing Editor
COOKEVILLE –Centerstone recently opened its first licensed therapeutic clinic in Cookeville at 606 E. Spring Street, Suite B, marking an expansion of Centerstone services in Putnam County.
The not-for-profit organization entered this region in 2011 and already provides the local area with intensive in-home treatment for families, school-based therapy (in all 18 Putnam County schools), therapeutic foster care, prevention services and health link care coordination.
The 2,800 sq. ft facility will house two full-time therapists and a nurse practitioner. Providers at this location will offer traditional clinic-based therapy services as well as psychiatric evaluation and treatment for individuals suffering from mental illness or emotional disturbance.
Centerstone currently provides school-based therapy services for Putnam County, Macon County, White County, and Cumberland County schools. Warren County schools will be added in January.
“These services are provided through a contract with Tenncare at no cost to the school system,” said Ken Stewart, regional vice president at Centerstone.“The downside is only Tenncare patients are eligible for the school-based services.”
In treating each child, therapists determine if the child’s problems are truly school issues, such as learning disabilities or hyperactivity. Counselors work with the schools to see how they can best educate the student. Often, they learn that the child has a complex home life and will refer to in-home treatment. Through in-home treatment, Centerstone frequently discovers that there are mentally ill family members in the household who are not getting care.
Clinic-based care is often based on referrals from these in-home treatment therapists. Clinic-based care has the benefit of being able to prescribe the needed medications and to teach clients about their illness and techniques to work through the resulting symptoms.
“This is the culmination of an evolution of services where we now have patients we are treating in the community that needed a location to come to for services,” said Stewart.
Prior to the clinic opening, patients had to travel to Nashville or Knoxville for Centerstone’s clinic-based services.
For more about Centerstone, please call (931) 303-0665 or visit centerstone.org.