Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-11-11
New Clinic to Pioneer
Extraordinarily Help
By MIRIAM GUTENBERG

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For the first time in Washing
ton and possibly in the country.
the problems Of children and the
needs Of their families will be
met under one roof.
The pioneer project is a new
child guidance clinic, to be dedi-
Gated here tomorrow as part of
the Jewish Social Service Agency.
Its founders say it will be the first
time such a clinic has been as
ISOLATED with a family agency.
Adding substantially to the
Districts meager facilities for
psychiatric care of children, 1t
will be non-sectarian and inter-
racial. 1t will accept children
for intensive psychiatric treat
ment without any Of the limi-
tations of the other existing
agencies.
1t will operate on the principle
that where there is a child be-
havior problem. there Is usually
a family problem behind it. Thus,
the clinic team will not only work
with the child but will consult
with the family agency-either
Jewish Social Service or any
other referring agency-on how
to help the parents.
Unit Case Outlined
Since it is associated with a
family agency, the clinic will
make it possible to treat the
family as a unit with the family
agency providing financial as
sistance, marital counselling,
foster-home placement and other
services as they are needed.
The clinic stems from repeated
surveys emphasizing the city's
lack Of facilities for the treat
ment Of thousands Of emotion
ally-disturbed children here.
When the city did nothing as
q result Of these surveys, the
private agency ordered its own
professional survey and acted on
the findings.
The clinic has been financed
by some 80 private individuals
each Of whom pledged between
$1,000 and $4,000 to keep the
clinic going for the next three
years.
The consultants' survey and
the story behind the new clinic
were made public yesterday by
Mrs. David K. Bazelon, now
chairman of the Child Guidance
Clinic Committee; Richard K.
Lyon, who was her co-chairmanI
in raising $4,000 in pledges in
six weeks and is now vice-chair-
man Of the clinic committee, and
George M. Pikser, executive di-I
rector of the Jewish Social Serv-
ice Agency.
Had Long Waiting Period
More than three years ago,
Mrs. Bazelon. as chairman of the
agency's child welfare commit
tee. began exploring what the
agency and the city as a whole |
were doing to give psychiatric |
help to children. Like others be-
fore her, she found children in
immediate need of help had to
wait eight months or more even
to be seen in clinic-if they
were acceptable at all--and fire.
quently the clinic visits ended
with diagnosis.
As Mr.. Pikser put it, diagnosticl
clinics would refer Jewish chill
dren to the agency for lack of
any place else to send them.
I'VE were engaged in enter
prises ranging from hand-hold-
ing to rule-of thumb psychia-
try" he said. Sending children
out of the city for residential
psychiatric treatment-at a cost
of between $4,000 and $1,000 a i
year-became the largest item
in our budget"
Mrs. Bazelon's report-with its
estimate of 10000 District school
children showing emotional dis
turbance and 5000 in immediate
need Of psychiatric treatment
prompted the agency board to
order a professional survey.
The survey team agreed with
the findings of the previous sur
veys and concluded that mental
health services in Washington
are meager in amount and frag-
mentary in scope"
The consultants reported that
existing clinicg-nart1v hacatiea