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With the help of two grants from our valued investors, the Naples Children & Education Foundation (NCEF), founder of the Naples Winter Wine Festival, David Lawrence Centers will be able to expand a variety of services for children in need. These grants are being funded through their behavioral health initiative under the umbrella of the Collier Health Under Guided Systems (HUGS) program which is now in its third year and provided in collaboration with our partnering agencies National Alliance on Mental Illness, Youth Haven and Healthcare Network of Southwest. HUGS provides improved access to mental health care by providing screening, early identification, and expanded capacity of David Lawrence Centers outpatient services.

A new $200,000 grant will fund scholarships for individualized services to up to 40 high risk Collier County children in a program that replicates and expands the Center’s state funded Title XXI Behavioral Network program. The new effort, being called Wraparound Collier, will provide specialty mental health services for high risk uninsured children from Collier County’s working families with direct counseling along with linkage to other individualized services and supports in home, school and community-based settings, including inpatient crisis stabilization when deemed medically necessary.

This is an additional grant above and beyond the $225,000 grant that will be used to expand David Lawrence Center’s innovative telemedicine program which utilizes high-definition video conferencing units to bring doctors, therapists and clients together virtually. These funds will purchase and install the equipment at Youth Haven and Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida allowing their clients and patients direct access to DLC psychiatrists and mental health therapists.