Counseling Services: Necessary or Irrelevant

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Counseling Services Necessary or Irrelevant

• The State of Counseling Services in Jewish Family
  Service Agencies 2006
• Neil P. Newstein, LCSW, RG
• Alpert Jewish Family Children's Service
• West Palm Beach, Fl. 33417
• [phone] Email nnewstein_at_jfcspb.org

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Why the ReviewCounseling Services have changed
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Why the Review

• Many agencies have expressed concern about the
  health of counseling programs
• Counseling programs have been part of AJFCA
  agencies, often since they were founded
• Counseling has always been viewed as a core
  service
• There are now many competitors for fee-paying
  clients
• Funding is seemingly difficult to obtain

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Survey Responding Agencies

• Sent to 141 AJFCA agencies
• Received 109 responses
• Survey also sent separately to
• Alliance agencies - 75 responses (318
  agencies)
• COA (other) accredited agencies 149 responses
  (735 agencies)
• AJFCA / Alliance / and COA agencies are
  unduplicated
• Size of AJFCA agencies responding
• Less than 1 million 40
• Over 1 to 3 million 30
• Over 3 to 5 million 7
• Over 5 to 8 million 9
• Over 8 million 13

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Status of Counseling Services

• 95 of the 106 reporting agencies are currently
  providing counseling and do NOT have plans to
  discontinue
• 2 agencies discontinued counseling within past 5
  years, 2 more than 5 years ago and 2 never have
  provided counseling service
• Alliance and Other agencies are almost identical

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Counseling operations

• 78 of reporting AJFCA agencies have been
  providing counseling services for more than 20
  years
• 81 report serving the same number, or more
  clients than 5 years ago
• 51 agencies report an increase in the number of
  clients served
• Alliance and Other agencies report similarly

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Special Populations Served

• Services to Seniors
• 91 of AJFCA agencies
• 70 of Alliance agencies
• 68 of Other family agencies
• Services to Chronically Mentally Ill
• 47 of AJFCA agencies
• 32 of Alliance agencies
• 20 of Other family agencies

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Special Populations Served (cont)

• Services to Children
• 82 of AJFCA agencies
• 95 of Alliance agencies
• 91 of Other family agencies
• Services to Adolescents
• 84 of AJFCA agencies
• 98 of Alliance agencies
• 92 of Other family agencies

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Staffing IssuesAJFCA Types of Counseling staff
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Staffing IssuesAJFCA Agencies Types of
Compensation
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Staffing IssuesComparison -Types of Compensation

• Agencies reporting 50 or more of their staff are
  in Private Practice
• AJFCA 18
• Alliance 7
• Other family agencies - 10
• Agencies Employing Salaried (exempt) Counseling
  Staff
• AJFCA 68.6
• Alliance 79.7
• Other family agencies 82.3

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Staffing IssuesAJFCA Agencies reporting percent
of staff in private practice
13
Staffing IssuesAgencies with counseling staff
averaging 5 or more years tenure
14
Financial IssuesUnit cost AJFCA
15
Financial IssuesUnit cost Cost greater than
75.00
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Financial IssuesFees
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Financial IssuesAJFCA Minimum Fees
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Financial Issues Income SourcesSources of
Funding of agencies who get LESS than 50 of
counseling income from direct fees or 3rd party
payments
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Financial Issues Income SourcesSources of
Funding of agencies who get MORE than 50 of
counseling income from donations or contracts
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Financial Issues median counseling budgets by
agency budgets

• Agency Budget
• lt 1 million
• 1 3 million
• 3 5 million
• 5 8 million
• 8 10 million
• gt10 million

• Counseling Budget
• lt 100k (47)
• 100k to 500k (57)
• 100k to 500k (29)
• 500k to 750k (38)
• 100k to 500k (100)
• gt 2 million (50)

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Operations Central Intake Staff Credentials
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We must determine our counseling identity