ABOUT US
History
A promising future built on a caring past
Gateway Healthcare has grown into one of Rhode Island’s largest nonprofit networks providing behavioral healthcare (mental health and substance abuse) treatment and prevention in response to the area’s need for community care. Both our mission - to promote resiliency and to assist people in their recovery and our vision - to preserve the promise - are reflected throughout the organization and a vital part of our day-to-day leadership.
In a way, Gateway’s roots were planted during the 1950-60s revolution in mental health care. Addiction and mental health treatment philosophy underwent a sea change as emphasis on large hospitals and public asylums fell from favor, and Rhode Island became a leader in the deinstitutionalization movement. Community treatment centers became the focus of treatment, and a network of eight centers opened across the state developed from local, nonprofit treatment programs. Gateway’s mental health facilities – Community Counseling Center and Mental Health Services – were an integral part of that original community programming.
In the 80s and 90s managed care changed the face of healthcare once again. It brought confusing and contradictory regulations, funding cuts, increased government regulation and accreditation organizations such as JCAHO. Treatment centers were also faced with creating or expanding substance abuse services as insurers and government agencies began to demand more programs for the dually diagnosed. To survive, it became essential for behavioral health organizations to develop new business opportunities as well as new sources of revenue to meet demand. The administrative side of healthcare was pulling resources and manpower from client care, and they deserved better.
Gateway’s formal network was then born when like-minded organizations with a common vision came together to respond to managed care challenges. The leaders of several community mental health centers saw the need for more sophisticated administration and by the early 1990s, began discussing a regional network. By 1995, the boards of Community Counseling Center (CCC) and Mental Health Services (MHS) agreed to form Gateway Healthcare, Inc. to undertake administrative duties and enable them to once again focus on client care.
Gateway became the corporate parent and assumed responsibility for general administration, human resources, quality management, performance and outcomes evaluation, financial administration, property management, grant solicitation and business development.
This network model enabled Gateway to respond to community need by bringing additional agencies into the network that would operate under the corporation’s umbrella.
As a result, Gateway brought Rhode Island Youth Guidance Center, Inc. and Tri-Hab, Inc. into the network in 1996 to respond to the need for more youth-oriented counseling and for substance abuse services. Each agency shared a mutual commitment to the Gateway mission and vision and retained their own board of directors.
In 1998, Gateway formed Gateway Professional Group, a for-profit private practice corporation located in Pawtucket owned by Gateway. Through outpatient counseling, Gateway Professional Group (GPG) offers mental health and substance abuse services to adults and children. Since GPG is a for-profit component of Gateway, it represents the potential for a positive revenue stream and strategic collaboration with additional community partners. Gateway Healthcare Inc.was accredited by the Joint Commission in 1998 as a managed behavioral healthcare organization, earning recognition for Gateway’s high quality of care.
Until mid-2005, each member agency maintained their own identity and Tri-Hab and Rhode Island Youth Guidance also maintained their own board of directors. In July of that year, Gateway’s member agencies merged under the Gateway name umbrella to achieve further efficiencies in billing and payroll services. A board member from each agency was chosen to serve on the Gateway Board. The only change patients saw was a change in stationery – staff, programs and the dedication to quality behavioral care and substance abuse services remain the same.
Meeting Community Need Through Strategic Affiliations
In 2005, New Hope for Families affiliated with Gateway. New Hope is the only shelter in the Providence to Woonsocket area that allows a family to stay in the shelter together. They provide emergency shelter and social services that assist residents in setting goals, seeking jobs, and planning for the future. With the partnership, New Hope gained management expertise, infrastructure assistance and financial backing while maintaining their nonprofit status. Gateway further established their leadership role in providing access to mental health and social service programs that the state’s most needy citizens would not otherwise have access to.
In October of 2006, FRIENDS WAY also affiliated with Gateway. FRIENDS WAY is the only bereavement center in Southeastern New England. Located in Warwick, Rhode Island, FRIENDS WAY, offers peer- to- peer support groups to children ages 3-19 who have lost a loved one to death. During the past seven years of operation, FRIENDS WAY has assisted hundreds of children and families suffering from grief issues. The program is free of charge to families and is solely funded through fundraising activities. By maintaining its own 501(c)(3), FRIENDS WAY is responsible for its own fundraising while Gateway provides the infrastructure to manage the program.
April of 2007 brought about another exciting affiliation between the Autism Project of Rhode Island (APRI) and Gateway Healthcare. In an effort to both develop innovative Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) programming and increase access to care, Gateway and APRI are working closely together on new initiatives in the area of ASD. Also maintaining their own 501(c)(3), APRI will continue working with their constituent base for fundraising purposes while Gateway provides the infrastructure oversight.
Today Gateway's staff of over 800 consists of psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical specialists and other professionals who reach over 14,000 Rhode Islanders each year through residential, outpatient and community-based programs. As part of our mission, we provide more than $2 million of free care to those in need.
Gateway is fully accredited by the Joint Commission and licensed by the Rhode Island Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals, the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families, and The Rhode Island Department of Education.
Member Agency Background
Community Counseling Center (CCC) – In 1965, a group of citizens created the Pawtucket Community Mental Health Clinic to provide outpatient services to Pawtucket’s children and adults. In 1968, it expanded its service area to include Central Falls, and received most of its funding from the two cities with state assistance. In 1976 the clinic changed its name to the Pawtucket/Central Falls Mental Health Center and worked to qualify for funding under the federal Comprehensive Community Mental Health Center Act. This funding mandated the services that remain our basic core of treatment: inpatient and outpatient services, emergency services, children’s programs, elderly services, court screening services, alcohol and substance abuse treatment.
The agency became CCC in 1982 as the federal government pulled back direct funding and created the Block Grant system, which funneled funding through the states. Under Block Grants, CCC provided day treatment and 24-hour emergency services. In the years that followed, CCC expanded services to include residential programs for children and adults.
With the creation of the Valley Community School in Pawtucket, CCC entered the education arena with a fully-accredited school for children who are unable to function in a traditional public school setting. The Valley Community School has since added locations in Cranston, Middletown and South Kingstown.
In 1985 CCC earned Joint Commission accreditation, and the Joint Commission has renewed it five times since then. Significantly, CCC was the first Community Mental Health Organization in the state to receive this distinction.
Mental Health Services (MHS) – Between 1967 and 1973, three local mental health centers were created to serve Cranston, Smithfield and Johnston with outpatient and counseling services. They later expanded to serve Foster, Gloucester, Scituate, North Providence, becoming the Community Mental Health Services of Northwestern RI. As the state moved toward consolidation, the three centers created an Area IV Mental Health Board to fund and administer a day activity program, keeping outpatient programs at the local clinics. In 1980, the three local clinics fully merged all budgetary and program activities into one entity called Mental Health Services. MHS added emergency services with 24-hour coverage in 1983 and opened Windsor House in Johnston to offer residential services. The agency continued to respond to the communities it served, adding Mobile Treatment Teams and substance abuse services. In 1996, MHS acquired Counseling and Intervention Services of Warwick, offering substance abuse treatment primarily in that area. MHS also earned JCAHO accreditation in 1993.
Rhode Island Youth Guidance – Founded in 1916 as the Providence Child Guidance Center, it served as a statewide resource for child and family outpatient counseling and consultation services for schools. Long before the existence of community mental health centers, RIYG was serving children through school-based and school-linked services. Over the years RIYG developed a full partnership with Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Providence school districts to conduct treatment and prevention programs in 40 schools for children in pre-kindergarten through grade 12. They have stayed current with family and society needs, adding after-school and summer day programs. In 1995, they introduced the A+ Adventure Program, which engages youth in a creative mix of interactive learning projects, the arts and recreation to improve their social and academic skills.
Tri-Hab, Inc.- A group of community leaders founded Tri-Hab in 1973 in response to the increasing incidence of substance abuse with locations in Woonsocket and Central Falls, and mobile services throughout the state. In 1995, Tri-Hab acquired PACS (Pawtucket Addiction Counseling Services). In 2000 they organized Centro La Familia, a culturally sensitive counseling and substance abuse program for the area’s burgeoning Latino population.
Over the years Tri-Hab has expanded to offer residential treatment programs for men and women, outpatient programs for substance abusers and their families, day treatment programs for women, after-hours emergency treatment through Landmark Medical Center and local police departments and an employee assistance program for local businesses. They were fully accredited by the Joint Commission in 1988.
Gateway’s history spans a decade and encompasses the collective wisdom and expertise of our member agencies as well as the triumphs fought and won in a community mental health organization in the 21st century.
No doubt there are struggles inherent in the non-profit world today, but it is not these difficulties that make Gateway special. Rather it is the plight of our clients, the thousands of men, women and children who turn to us for help in rebuilding their lives and the individual lifelines we offer that makes us stand apart. The examples are countless, the need is immense, and at times seems immeasurable.
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