ABOUT US
The Child Center and Adult Services is a private, non-profit organization that provides mental health counseling to children, adults, couples, and families in Montgomery County.
What We Do
In our Gaithersburg office, over twenty licensed therapists provide mental health counseling to children, adolescents, individual adults, couples and families. Located in the Shady Grove Professional Building, our office is cheerful, comfortable, and easily accessible. We accept most insurance plans. We also have a sliding fee scale.
In addition to counseling in our Gaithersburg office, we have a number of community-based programs that provide mental health care for low-income, high-risk children, adults, and families. Our Catholic Schools program provides mental health consultation to selected parochial schools. We have a continuing education program that offers six sessions per year of professional education to mental health providers in the community.
History and Mission
In 1978, Dr. Maryrose Rogolsky founded the Child Center. She began providing low-cost, high-quality mental health care to children and their parents in a small office rented in a church. As the church provided sanctuary to the Child Center, the Child Center offered children shelter of another sort: mental health care that combined high standards with a profound appreciation of children and family.
Today, the Child Center and Adult Services is in a professional office building in Gaithersburg. Our staff has grown from three to over twenty part- and full-time professionals. We changed from the “Child Center” to the “Child Center and Adult Services” (CCAS) as parents of our child clients asked for services, too. We widened our scope to include single adults, couples, and families.
Our mission remains the same: to provide high quality mental health services for children and adults and their families and to engage in community activities that promote mental health-related goals. We have a core commitment to prevention and early intervention. We respect clients’ religious, cultural, and ethnic values, and shape our services to support them.
Staff
Our staff of over 20 experienced therapists includes psychologists, clinical social workers, and licensed professional counselors. Douglas Tebor, MD, our consulting psychiatrist, is board-certified to work with children, adolescents and adults. We have regular peer consultation and training programs for our staff to ensure that we maintain a high quality of care.
Staff members include:
Awards and Recognition
CCAS is recognized for the excellence of its services. In 2005, the Catalogue for Philanthropy included us in its catalogue, which showcases high-quality small charities. “These are certainly among the best small charities in the Washington, DC region,” states Barbara Harman, Executive Director of the Harman Family Foundation. Charities are selected for “excellence, innovation, and cost-effectiveness.”
Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, our program for pregnant women and new mothers with depression, received the Washington Area Women’s Foundation leadership award in 2004. The County Executive has honored our co-director, Maryrose Rogolsky, presenting her with the Montgomery County Pathways of Achievement award for a lifetime of distinguished service in the workplace. In addition, The Montgomery County Women’s Fair presented us with its “Agency Award” in recognition of our services to low-income women.
Mental Health Services
Therapists in our Gaithersburg office work with children, adolescents, individual adults, couples, and families.
Services We Offer
Our therapists use play therapy, individual therapy, couples and family therapy, and group therapy to help clients. Our consulting psychiatrist can help with medication assessment and management when necessary. Our therapists are happy to collaborate if a client is seeing a psychiatrist outside of our office.
We provide help with many different issues, including
- Anxiety, stress and depression
- Grief, loss and transition
- Relationship issues
- Separation, divorce, remarriage, and blended families
- Family and parenting issues
- School adjustment and learning problems, including ADHD
- Reproductive issues including infertility, miscarriage and stillbirth, and pregnancy-related or postpartum mental health concerns
- Aging
Walking down the hallway on a busy afternoon, a visitor to CCAS might pass counselor’s offices where a girl uses a doll house to play out her feelings about divorcing parents; a couple works to improve communication; a 70-year-old woman grieves her husband’s sudden death; an EAP client explores anger at a co-worker; and a client learns techniques to manage panic so crippling she cannot work at all. In another office, parents might meet with a counselor about how to help a child with ADHD. At the end of the hall, a teenager whose parents say he is a “great kid” may try to figure out why he is so depressed that he can barely get out of bed in the morning.
For more about …
- Self-assessment
- Children’s understanding of death
- Pregnancy-related and postpartum mental health concerns
- Infertility
- Miscarriage and stillbirth
- Aging
New clients who want to make an appointment should call 301-978-9750 between 9:00 and 5:00 and ask to speak to one of our intake coordinators. Our intake coordinators are licensed psychologists and social workers who will ask about your needs and help find a therapist who is a good match for you. Our therapists see clients from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM Monday through Friday. We also have limited Saturday office hours.
Information for new clients …
We participate in most insurance plans. We also participate in several Employee Assistance Programs. Our office will bill your insurance company for the cost of your therapy that is covered under your plan.
Insurance policies usually require that you pay a portion of the cost yourself (a “co-pay” or “co-insurance”). This amount is set by your insurance company. We ask that you pay your co-pay or co-insurance fee at the time of service.
If we do not participate in your insurance, but your policy allows you to go outside your network, we can match you with a therapist who can see you on an out-of-network basis.
We have a sliding fee scale for clients who do not wish to use their insurance or who are uninsured. This fee is calculated based on ability to pay.
We have therapists who speak Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Hindi. Please let our intake coordinator know if you have special language needs.
What clients discuss in therapy is considered confidential. This is an ethical and legal responsibility we take seriously. We follow state and federal law that regulates privacy protections.
There are some exceptions to confidentiality (such as suspected child abuse or neglect, or danger to self or others). In such cases, we are legally or ethically required to depart from the general rule that we protect client privacy. Please be sure to raise any questions you have about privacy with your therapist.
… For more about privacy policies
Clients of the Child Center and Adult Services, Inc. have the right to competent, concerned, individualized care without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, religion, national origin, marital status, political belief, or disability.
A client who is concerned about discrimination has a right to raise those issues with one of our co-directors by filing a written complaint or by requesting a telephone or personal conference with her.
Community-Based Programs
CCAS’ commitment to service does not stop at our office door. We believe it is essential to bring services to the community, breaking down barriers that often keep our neighbors from getting treatment. Our community-based programs provide mental health care at no or low-cost to ensure that vulnerable, low-income, and uninsured clients get help.
Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies:
Pregnancy-Linked and Postpartum Depression
Treating women with prenatal and postpartum depression quickly is essential to help avert long-term harm to infants and toddlers. By addressing the mother’s depression early, we can free mothers to parent their children, foster healthy child development, and avert significant risk of abuse or neglect. In our Gaithersburg office, we see many women who have insurance and who seek help because they believe they may have pregnancy-linked or postpartum depression.
Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies brings our services to uninsured and underinsured women in the community, using an innovative approach to outreach. We have trained workers in other community agencies (such as public health nurses, parent educators and family support workers) to recognize signs of depression in pregnant women and new mothers they serve. When a worker in one of our partner agencies is concerned that a woman is depressed, she discusses depression and asks the woman if she is interested in being referred for treatment. We also serve women who are self-referred.
If a woman agrees to get help, one of our therapists makes an appointment to assess her for depression. We provide 12 subsidized treatment sessions. We provide additional treatment on a case-by-case basis to make sure the pregnant woman or mother has made a good recovery. We also have funding for limited psychiatric visits to evaluate and follow women whose depression is so deep it requires medication as well as talk therapy.
We work with women where we can reach them best. We offer clients follow-up treatment in our Gaithersburg office, and provide transportation if necessary. Some of our clients are in Silver Spring or Wheaton, a considerable distance from our office. We are flexible in working with these clients, and have continued to meet them in their homes, near their workplace, or in borrowed Silver Spring and Wheaton office space. We believe this flexibility is central to keeping mothers in treatment. We have Spanish-speaking therapists.
For more information about pregnancy-linked and postpartum mental health issues …
AMIGO: School-Based Mental Health Care
Since 1991, our AMIGO program has provided school-based mental health services to Latino and other high-risk children. AMIGO provides intensive mental health services at no charge to children and their parents. Locating AMIGO in public schools has provided rich opportunities for partnership with teachers, parents, and other community service providers. We serve children referred to us by the school because of concerns about their emotional well-being.
AMIGO therapists can observe children in class, in the hallways and cafeteria, participate in educational planning, and help parents participate in the school process. AMIGO’s holistic approach allows us to gain families’ trust by helping them get needed services and by being culturally respectful. Since 1991, AMIGO has served over 2,500 students. Over 2,000 parents have attended parent workshops and programs for adults.
AMIGO services include:
· Assessment, observation and weekly individual therapy sessions for students who are referred by their teachers or by their families. AMIGO therapists are bi-lingual and specially trained to deal with children.
· Group therapy where children can talk about worries and fears in a safe environment. Children learn coping skills and practice using them with their peers.
· Parents can attend monthly parent workshops conducted in Spanish. These sessions address parenting topics such as communicating with teachers and positive discipline.
Positive Aging Project: Help for Senior Citizens
Aging can an opportunity to find meaning in a life fully lived. Yet it also can be a time of despair – despair that goes far beyond the grief and loss we experience in life. Nearly one in five seniors has a mental health problem that is more than “normal” difficulties in adjustment. Many do not get help.
At our Gaithersburg office, we provide therapy to senior citizens who pay with Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance. Our Positive Aging Project brings services out to the community.
Designed to reach senior citizens who live independently in our community and to help them live life to its full potential, the Positive Aging Project serves three community sites: the Gaithersburg Senior Center, Holiday Park Senior Center, and an apartment complex for low-income aged and disabled residents. Locating mental health and wellness services at these sites provides a respectful way to offer support to seniors who otherwise might hesitate to seek it out. This program is supported by the City of Gaithersburg, private grants and donations, and a contract with a local realty company.
While services differ somewhat from site to site, the Positive Aging Project offers:
Referral assistance, helping to link seniors with services that help them remain independent and engaged in the community.
Individual assessment and short-term counseling
Work with seniors and family members to help resolve family issues
Groups that give seniors a place to share their experiences and provide support to each other
Positive Aging Lecture Series in memory of Roger W. Eisinger, Jr. Lectures cover topics such as “Positive Aging While Living Alone,” “Coping with Chronic Illness,” and “Who’s The Adult? Positive Communication with Your Grownup Children.”
For more information about aging and mental health …
Community Cares: Mental Health Care for the Uninsured
Private donations and grants enable us to work with uninsured children, adults, couples and families who need counseling but do not have insurance. We see these uninsured clients in our Gaithersburg office and charge a sliding fee scale based on ability to pay.
A City of Gaithersburg grant supports a pilot project to provide mental health care to uninsured Gaithersburg residents. This grant enables one of our therapists to provide mental health assessment and treatment to patients who go to the Gaithersburg Community Clinic, Inc. for primary health services. The Community Clinic, Inc. is a private, non-profit medical clinic. It serves a broad spectrum of low-income individuals and families: uninsured workers, recent immigrants, senior citizens, homeless adults, and children and adolescents. It houses the WIC program, which provides nutritional assistance to low-income pregnant women, mothers, infants and toddlers.
The Community Clinic, Inc. has donated office space so that one of our bilingual therapists can see patients referred to us by Clinic doctors. This is an exciting partnership. It enables us to reach clients at a facility they already trust, and that is easily accessible to them. When clinic doctors are concerned about patients, they can literally walk them down the hall and introduce them to our therapist.
Catholic School Consultation
CCAS social workers provide services to selected Catholic schools on a part-time basis. Because these schools do not have full-time guidance counselors, our social workers play a vital role in serving students, parents, and teachers. Social workers meet one-on-one with students to address issues like peer and family problems, anger management, attention problems, anxiety, and adjusting to a new school. They also visit classrooms and work in small groups to explore problems such as bullying, peer pressure, and lack of social skills. Our workers meet with parents to provide support and guidance about concerns including recognizing learning disabilities, handling parent divorce or separation, discipline, and coping with a child’s separation anxiety.
Self-assessment tools
The screening tools and rating scales on this website are for educational purposes, to increase understanding of symptoms used to diagnose certain mental health conditions. They are not substitutes for professional assessment. Diagnosis should be made only by a trained mental health professional after a complete assessment.
A particular score on one of these tests does not mean that you do (or do not) have a particular mental health issue. Regardless of the score on a screen, we urge you to see your doctor or a mental health professional if you have any concerns. It may be helpful to print out this scale and take it with you.
Symptoms that suggest suicidal or harmful behaviors should get immediate attention.
Screening tools and rating scales:
Anxiety
Generalized anxiety disorder (adults)
Child anxiety
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Social anxiety
Social phobia inventory
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Childhood ADHD
Adult ADHD
Depression
Child and adolescent depression
Adult depression
Prenatal and postpartum depression
Depression and senior citizens
Mood disorder questionnaire
Mental Health Topics
Our therapists work with clients on a very broad range of issues. Here is more in-depth information about some of them. For background about other important issues, see Links, which refers to websites we hope you find useful.
Information about …
When parents separate
Visitation guide for parents
Telling children about death
Pregnancy-related and postpartum depression
Infertility
Miscarriage and stillbirth
Aging and mental health
Links
Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Alcoholism: www.al-anon.alateen.org - Information and support for family and friends of alcoholics. Alateen serves teenagers whose lives are affected by a family member’s alcoholism.
Alcoholism: www.alcoholics-anonymous.org Information about Alcoholics Anonymous and how to find local meetings.
Drug abuse: www.na.org Website for Narcotics Anonymous, a twelve-step program for recovering drug addicts.
Children and Adolescents
General information: www.kidshealth.org Mental health, drug and alcohol information geared to child and teen readers.
Bipolar disorder: www.bpkids.org Information about bipolar disorder in children and adolescents.
Child development: www.zerotothree.org Child development and parenting information for parents of young children.
Learning disabilities: www.ldaamerica.org Information about learning disabilities and school accommodations.
Learning disabilities: www.ldonline.org WETA-sponsored site about learning disabilities.
Parenting: www.cfw.tufts.edu Links to articles and websites on parenting and child development.
Therapy groups: www.groups4kids.com Listing of therapy groups for children and teens in Montgomery County.
Reproductive Issues: Prenatal And Postpartum Depression, Infertility, Miscarriage And Stillbirth
Infertility: http://www.shadygrovefertility.com/SUPPORT_Articles.cfm Articles on infertility and emotional support.
Miscarriage and stillbirth: http://www.marchofdimes.com/pnhec/572.asp Coping with a miscarriage or stillbirth.
Prenatal and postpartum depression: www.postpartum.net Postpartum Support International’s website on prenatal and postpartum depression.
Senior Citizens
Aging and Mental Health: www.gmfonline.org Geriatric Mental Mealth Foundation website provides information about alcohol and drug use, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, depression, caregiving, geriatric psychiatry, and healthy aging.
Benefits: www.benefitscheckup.org National Council on Aging website helps senior citizens generate a personal report of public programs and benefits that they may qualify for.
Local resources: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/cittmpl.asp?url=/content/citizen/seniors.asp Montgomery County services for senior citizens.
Specific Mental Health Issues
General information: www.nami.org NAMI, a national education and advocacy organization, provides information on ADHD, depression, bipolar disorder, seasonal affective disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder.
Anxiety: www.adaa.org Anxiety Disorders Association of America provides information about anxiety disorders including Generalized Anxiety Disorder, panic and agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety, phobias, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Aspergers: www.aspergers.org Information about Aspergers Syndrome, including Maryland resources.
ADHD: www.chadd.org ADHD information for adults and children, including local resources and support.
Autism: www.cureautismnow.org Autism information and support.
Eating disorders: www.nationaleatingdisorders.org Information about eating disorders.
Grief: www.griefworksbc.com Information about grief and loss for children, adolescents and adults.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder: www.ocfoundation.org Obsessive Compulsive Foundation website with information about treatment, research, and resources for OCD, trichotillomania, and body dysmorphia.
Community Resources
[in progress]
Continuing Education
The Cyma Heffter Continuing Education program offers six workshops for mental health professionals every year. Each workshop provides three hours of continuing education credit. We offer at least one workshop on ethics per year.
We are approved to provide continuing education by the Maryland Board of Examiners in Psychology, the National Board for Certified Counselors, and the Maryland Board of Social Work Examiners.
Attending workshops
Please sign up in advance by mailing or faxing a registration form to our office. The registration form is on our workshop brochure. Current workshop brochure …
Workshops begin at 9:00 and end at 12:15. Sign-in and coffee time begins at 8:30.
Workshop site:
Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Center
9601 Medical Center Drive
Rockville, Maryland … Directions to Johns Hopkins
Making a Donation
The Child Center and Adult Services, Inc. is a private, non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status. All contributions are deductible to the full extent allowed by law. We are among Washington area charities recognized by the Catalogue for Philanthropy for “excellence, innovation, and cost-effectiveness.”
Support from private donors helps make possible the overall work of the agency, including special community-based programs that serve low-income, high-risk clients. We are a local charity with low overhead. When you make a donation, we put it directly to work helping children, adults and families in our community. Because we are a small charity, your help truly makes a difference!
You can make a donation by
Mailing a check to:
Child Center and Adult Services, Inc.
Attention: Nancy Ebb
16220 Frederick Road, Suite 502
Gaithersburg, MD 20877-4022.To print a donor form …
Ÿ Supporting our work through the United Way/Combined Federal Campaigns. Our designation number is _____________
Ÿ Making an online donation through the Catalogue for Philanthropy.