Helping Hand Reaches Out Farther to Fill Greater Needs

Adams said he and Leggett are pleased to see JSSA expand into northern Montgomery, where there are not many social service agencies.

"There's increasing need, particularly in the Germantown area, further and further out as we've grown, but there's less civic infrastructure," Adams said. "You go to a place like Silver Spring, and there's way more nonprofit groups providing a variety of programs to serve people. In Germantown, there is a real concern that we just don't have the civic infrastructure yet."

JSSA's new facility will house expanded programs in autism and couples counseling. The Autism Family Coordination Program provides support for autistic children as well as their parents and siblings, including therapy, social skills classes, monitoring, education and training.

"Unlike many traditional case management programs, the focus is to look not just at the needs of the child, but what kinds of needs do the parents have?" said Jamell White, clinician in charge of the program. "What kinds of parents do the siblings have? We're looking at the whole family, not just the child with autism."

The Collaborating Couples Program provides premarital and marital counseling, support for parents of special-needs children, and specialized counseling for issues such as conflict, decision making, intimacy, religion, finances and parenting.

Widdes said enrollment in these programs is up, partly because of the economy. With the rise in gas prices and other living costs, many families cannot afford to pay out of pocket for private therapy.

"We find that there are families who are struggling economically. They're feeling the pressures of the downturn in the economy, with the cost of living going up," Widdes said. "People are just more stressed, more concerned, more depressed, more worried about how they're going to make ends meet, and that drives them to seek care."

JSSA also provides financial assistance, helping families pay their bills over the short term and putting them on a path toward self-sufficiency, Marketing Director Lise Krantz said.

"We help with everything from not being able to buy groceries to helping to pay rent and other short-term situations," Krantz said.