West Texas Counseling & Guidance Surpasses Goal in Cactus Campaign

As of right now, the West Texas Counseling & Guidance Center in San Angelo does not have a home of its own and relies solely on the goodwill of churches and other non-profits to house its counseling and educational programs. WTCG also no longer has space to expand mental health services in the San Angelo area. Its current facility no longer provides staff with the work flow needed to support the large number of clients coming through the doors. Additionally, the environment doesn’t support the therapeutic feeling desired and makes confidentiality difficult.

Therefore, the agency is campaigning a new capital project to utilize the 6^th floor of the Cactus Hotel to support the new and improved WTCG Center.

Executive Director for WTCG Dusty McCoy said, “The first grant that we received was in March, so in 10 or 11 months we’ve raised over $1.9 million; we’ve surpassed the goal. It’s been an unbelievable response. The response from San Angelo has been just amazing. We will have some leeway there if costs go over, and if not, we will actually have some money left over for a capital endowment for expenses that are associated with the building and the project. The community has come together in a big way which is so appreciative. We’ve raised a large amount of money in a short period of time, [and] that really shows San Angelo cares about mental health, and that it is important to the community. We are so, so blessed and appreciative of the support.”

The mission of West Texas Counseling & Guidance (WTCG) is to provide the highest quality counseling and educational services to the Concho Valley, utilizing evidence-based practices that are effective, affordable, and promote personal development and independence, said McCoy. The objective is to help individuals learn to heal themselves in mind, body and spirit. The agency is a non-profit organization, and staff firmly believe that individuals and families should have access to professional counseling, regardless of their socioeconomic status and ability to pay.

WTCG was founded in 1976 as a satellite clinic of the Abilene Pastoral Care and Counseling Center. In 2012, the board of directors decided to sever ties and became West Texas Counseling & Guidance. The agency has expanded and grown greatly since, and staff are now seeking a home to call their own.

“This is going to allow us to expand our services because we are limited by space now,” explained McCoy. “We are going to hire more therapists to help us keep up with demand and continue to grow. With the new facility, we are going to be able to do group counseling for depression, anxiety, anger management and substance abuse. So we are going to be able to see a lot more clients. Our LOSS team, Local Outreach for Suicidal Survivors, is going to be housed in the new facility as well. That is going to be a new program that will be in the Cactus, but now we will be able to keep up with the demand that we have currently and expand.”

WTCG staff believe this new home will not only provide a wellness for them and their clients, but it will also help in the revitalization of Downtown San Angelo. This location will also help with Wesley Soup Kitchen and Lakeview First United Methodist in their on-site counseling. In addition, the agency will be more efficient in reaching out to the entire Concho Valley and the rural satellite offices in Brady, Junction, Menard, Eden, Ozona and Sonora.  

“Our whole thing is access to services. This [Cactus] is going to be our headquarters,” specified McCoy. “We are still going to go into the communities because transportation is such an issue, so we will still go to the Wesley Trinity Soup Kitchen and provide our on-site therapy there. We will still be at the Lakeview site so transportation isn’t an issue there. And then we are going to expand our rural sites because, in most of these communities, we are the only mental health provider there. Many cannot make it to San Angelo either because of unreliable transportation, [they] don’t have the money to come to San Angelo or their jobs will not allow them to take off the half the days it takes to drive from Junction, Menard, Eden, Sonora or Ozona. They just cannot break away for the day, especially the kids that we see in those rural communities; they can’t be gone from school half or a whole day for weekly therapy session.”

In 2015, the WTCG treated 750 children and 1,225 adults for a total of 1,945 clients in over 10,000 individual sessions. Sixty-two percent of WTCG’s clients are low-income, and 37 percent include children and teens, while 62 percent are women. Unfortunately, WTCG’s five therapists have satellite offices, which makes it difficult for the administrative staff to fully support people with high quality care.

McCoy further elaborated, “It’s going to be 5,900 additional square footage of space for us to grow and we are not going to abandon what we have done up to this point. We are still going to be mobile, going out and reaching out, and we are just going to break down all the barriers that we can to allow others access to our services. We have this great partnership with MHMR; they allow us to use that space [current location] and they are going to continue to allow us to use it as well.”

WTCG staff believes that this new location is key to the long-term survival of the organization. Not only will it help the center to continue to meet the demand for future increased mental health services, but it will also improve the quality of services.