History

The community mental health movement of this country started in Connecticut when Clifford Beers wrote his autobiographical book, A Mind That Found Itself, upon his discharge from a mental hospital.  Inspired by his crusading desire, a group of his friends founded the Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiene in 1908, the first such society in the United States.  Around 1918, the Society provided traveling psychiatric services to Waterbury and other towns. 

In 1925, the Waterbury Society for Mental Hygiene was formed and the organization began to devote its care primarily to children.  By 1945, clinical services were limited to children exclusively. 

The Child Guidance Clinic of Greater Waterbury was incorporated in December 1951, with Florence M. Chase as the first president of the Board of Directors and Dr. Katharine Hawley Martin as Director.  Prior to 1951, the Waterbury Society for Mental Hygiene and the clinics of St. Mary’s and Waterbury Hospitals provided the only community psychiatric services. 

In 1953, the Waterbury Foundation (now the Connecticut Community Foundation) underwrote the program of the clinic for three years with $15,000.  In 1955, the State of Connecticut General Assembly appropriated $100,000 to develop and maintain a state-wide program of psychiatric clinics for children.  Waterbury's clinic was one of seven in the state to receive funds for the biennium 1955-57.  Financial assistance was received for the first time from the United Council and Fund, and from the United Givers of Naugatuck and Beacon Falls (United Ways).  Thus, in 1956, the clinic was able to rent Miss Marjorie Hayden’s house at 52 Pine Street, satisfying an ambition to have its own facility. 

From 1959 and 1986, Dr. Robert S. Adams served as Psychiatrist-Director of the Child Guidance Clinic.  Under his leadership, the clinic expanded services and developed community programs to provide broader services for socially disadvantaged youth. 

In 1974, Miss Hayden generously bequeathed her properties to the clinic.  The staff moved into her residence at 70 Pine Street in 1975. 

Raymond J. Paradise, LCSW, served as Chief Executive Officer from 1987-1999.  During Mr. Paradise’s tenure, the clinic opened satellite offices in Naugatuck and Woodbury, and in 1998 formed an affiliation with St. Mary’s Hospital to address the needs of children with mental and behavioral health care problems. 

Gary M. Steck, LMFT, a Waterbury native, was named Executive Director in 1999, a post he still holds today.  Within months of his arrival, the Clinic became the first licensed Outpatient Psychiatric Clinic for Children in the region.  Since then the Clinic has experienced a dramatic transformation.

Seemingly overnight, the clinic doubled its resources and staff through KidCare, a regional statewide initiative lead by the State Department of Children and Families to redesign children’s mental health care.  The clinic was awarded a contract to provide emergency mobile psychiatric services and care coordination across a 44 town region in western Connecticut in partnership with nine other agencies.  The new project, KidHelp Northwest, serviced over 1,300 children and adolescents in crisis in its first year of operation.  The clinic also added intensive home-based services, functional family therapy, early childhood consultation and flexible funding for families raising children with severe behavioral health problems. 

In keeping with the Clinic’s strategic vision, the Family Life Center (formerly associated with St. Mary’s Hospital) transitioned to the Child Guidance Clinic in October 2004. Offices to accommodate the Family Life Center and therapeutic in-home services opened at 36 Sheffield Street in Waterbury. In 2005, the Clinic was proudly established as a leader in the development of cooperative and collaborative initiatives across the region by the Department of Children and Families who entrusted us with their own Managed Systems of Care project in the Waterbury region. The Clinic’s growing trend continued in 2006 with the addition of Functional Family Therapy and Paladin House, a therapeutic group home.

Today, the clinic is a regional center that helps over 5,000 children, adolescents and families each year. Services include outpatient counseling in Spanish and English; treatment of victims of physical and sexual abuse; investigative interviews of victims of child abuse; emergency mobile psychiatric response to home, school and community crises; early identification and intervention at pre-schools; school-based treatment services; assistance to victims of crime; and intensive in-home treatment. Performance and outcome oriented projects that empower families and help keep children together with their families characterize our programs. A staff of 110 and our Board of Directors work collaboratively with over a dozen other community agencies to achieve the goals of prevention and treatment of childhood disorders, as well as promotion of health, growth and the well-being of all children.

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