Individuals of all ages in Bucks and Montgomery Counties who rely on various human service organizations in their daily lives and faiths, for everything from crisis intervention and foster care to autism day programs and behavioral health, now have another benefit at their disposal -- a new online care portal from Access Services called “Intersect: Community Needs” and it is found on Facebook.
Intersect, an initiative offered by nonprofit Christian-focused Access Services, looks to bring faith and mental health together via training, consultation and fostering relationships between faith communities and human service providers, according to a press release from Access Services.
Intersect is headed by Dave Eckert, a Master of Divinity and Certified Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner, who is also associate pastor of Grace Community Church in Chalfont and sits on the boards of the Pennsylvania Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services and Lakeside Educational Network.
Access Services Director of Program Development Mark Boorse, who is an elder at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Lower Salford Township, and Jess Fenchel, vice president of Adult Behavioral Health, who holds a master’s in counseling psychology from LaSalle University and serves the Advisory Board for the NHS Developmental Disability Treatment Team, also run the initiative with Eckert.
The Facebook group is more of a forum, where children and adults with mental health needs and development disabilities supported by Access Services and other local like-minded organizations can find information and help on relational, material, or monetary needs, per the release. It is a place to find the needs and means toward an individual’s goal.
Check out Intersect: Community Needs at this link.
Access Services, founded by Pennsylvanian Christian social workers in 1976, offers behavioral health, family and children services, and intellectual disability and autism day programs and employment services for individuals in crisis intervention, family peer support programs, foster care, youth mentoring, and respite support. It first provided community homes to former Pennhurst State Center patients in 1978 and oversaw 10 more by 1984.
Today, Access Services answers the needs of individuals with special needs in 13 counties: Montgomery, Bucks, Lehigh, Berks, Carbon, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Pike, and Schuylkill.
Get in touch with Access Services at [email protected].
See also:
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