cess Childrens Services - Santee-Wateree CMHC

Childrens Programs and Services


Santee-Wateree Community Mental Health Center offers an array of child, adolescent and family services at the Sumter CAF , Lee County MHC , Kershaw County MHC and Clarendon County MHC. Services include assessment, counseling, crisis intervention, case management, living skills, employment, housing, psychosocial services, medication management, after hours emergency care and various classes such as wellness and stress reduction. See what we have to offer!

AWARE - Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education
AWARE is also partnering with the South Carolina Department of Mental Health (SCDMH), the Federation of Families (FFSC), the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI SC), and a Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) consultant to provide school mental health (SMH) counselors and telepsychiatry equipment as well as offer training and technical assistance surrounding select evidence-based practices. The project goals are as follows: Increase awareness of mental health issues among school-aged youth; Provide training for school personnel and other adults who interact with schoolaged youth to detect and respond to mental health issues; Connect school-aged youth who may have behavioral health issues or serious mental illness and their families to needed services.
MDFT - MultiDimensional Family Therapy
Multidimensional Family Therapy is an intensive, family-centered evidence-based treatment for youth, teen and young adult problems and disorders. MDFT improves parental and family functioning and helps prevent out-of-home placement. It is designed to serve ages 10 -24, those in the child welfare system, those involved in Juvenile justice and those transitioning from inpatient or residential treatment settings. The program is proven to decrease substance abuse, crime and delinquency, violence, agression and depresion and proven to increase school attendance, grades, family and pro-social functioning and peer affiliation.
MDFT Brochure
School-Based Services
SWCMHC is proud to be one of 17 mental health centers across the state offering school-based mental health services that allow us to identify, intervene and treat emotional and behavioral disturbances at early points in a child’s development. SWCMHC currently has 13 school-based therapists that serve 30 schools in every school district throughout our catchment area offering intervention, prevention, treatment and case management services to children, adolescents and their families. This program offers evidence-based treatment models; advocacy and consultation/education that help ameliorate barriers to learning in school and improve other emotional/behavioral issues at home or other community settings.
Our therapists trained in Trauma Focused CBT, Child Play therapy, and we currently have two therapists also being trained in DBT. This past year, we have begun to develop a suicide care pathway by implementing the Zero Suicide Approach into our service model and work closely with our school districts to develop crisis intervention protocols for screening youth at risk for suicide. We offer multi-family group therapy for parents of school-age children and are expanding program services to treat patients that are diagnosed with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse issues. We are pleased that we continue to build positive partnerships with each of our school districts and in our community that promotion emotional health and well-being for children and adolescents in our area.