LFCS promotes mental health counseling

Lutheran Family and Children’s Services (LFCS) of Missouri announced the immediate availability of child and family counseling services at its Cape Girardeau location last week.

The not-for-profit service organization, which in September celebrated 50 years in Cape Girardeau, has offered counseling for three decades. The number of patients suffering depression or anxiety rose during the coronavirus pandemic and has not come back down, officials said.

“If there was a positive that came out of (the pandemic), I think we were having conversations about mental health,” said Tammy Hargis, a behavioral health supervisor at LFCS Cape Girardeau. “People who maybe never talked about mental health and what it meant were talking about it and seeking services.”

During a September anniversary event in Cape Girardeau, LFCS of Missouri’s president and chief executive officer Mike Duggar said the organization had seen a 400% increase in service calls since 2020. Most of these were for mental health services.

LFCS offers in-person and virtual counseling options for children, couples, siblings or any other type of family group. Hargis said many individuals pursue counseling to improve relationships or work through difficult phases of their lives.

“It sort of depends on what people come in for,” she said. “I think a lot of people come in for life adjustments. I think that’s one of the misconceptions about counseling — that you have to have some sort of serious diagnosis to come in for therapy, no matter what your age — and that’s just not the case.”

In Cape Girardeau, LFCS offers counseling for children as young as 3 years old. The therapists there usually see 25 to 30 people per week, though they currently have openings available.

Some clients can qualify for free services via grant funding, while a sliding fee scale can help others with therapy costs.

The LFCS office in Cape Girardeau is at 3178 Blattner Drive.