ROGERS, Ark. — The Samaritan Community Center has officially opened it's doors to their new Samaritan Counseling Clinic. The center is aimed at providing mental health services to community members who need it the most and have limited access to such resources.
"There were just not a lot of places to refer for mental health, especially if you had any kind of financial barrier' said Kayla Tedder, who's the Counseling Clinic Manager. "[There's] this really difficult correlation between I'm in this really hard spot in my life, and yet I'm still not financially able to access the care that I need."
No matter how much money you make, what kind of car you drive, or what your home looks like, talking to one of the center's four licensed therapists has little to no cost for the community. They can see children, teens, adults, seniors, and couples.
"We serve individuals and families that are at 250% of the federal poverty guidelines or below," said Tedder. "We are able to accept Medicaid benefits. We also have a free and charitable side of our program. So we have a whole program that maybe someone doesn't have insurance, maybe they have insurance, but their co-pay is really high, and so they're able to come and receive free counseling services."
Tedder emphasized that mental health can impact anyone and going to therapy can help relieve some pressure. They created the resource because of the need they were seeing.
"When we've gone through a lot and we're really struggling, it's so hard to make the other parts of your life work. It affects how we function at work, and in our relationships, and in our goals, and dreams, and things we want to do," said Kayla.
Samaritan Community Center is a non-profit in Rogers dedicated to serving the "hurting and hungry" of Northwest Arkansas. It provides food and resources to families living in poverty.
"They come in for the market, where they get to choose their own groceries. They come in for the cafe, where we have culinary-trained chefs providing fantastic food," said Chris Koerner, Director of Program Operations for Samaritan Community Center. "But then they stay to talk to our care advocates, to unlock resources for them, to give them confidence in filling out government forms that they need. They stay for our dental clinic, for our counseling center."
Koerner said they're trying to get people into the center and connecting them with everything they need to feel secure.
"We're trying to provide these wraparound services no matter what people's needs are," said Koerner. "It is so inaccessible for so many people, especially our neighbors, who are coming in so expensive, but we think it's going to be so valuable."
To inquire about eligibility, you can submit a form here.
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