Too often, the people who need mental health services the most are the ones who have the least access to care, whether that’s the child living in poverty or the widowed mother struggling to make ends meet. Counselor Dr. Alise Bartley is making it her job to find those people.
Alise founded the nonprofit Counseling for Community Wellness last August to connect licensed mental health counselors like herself and graduate-level students to local nonprofits to provide counseling services on-site for free. In the first year, they provided about 600 sessions to more than 120 children and adults at organizations such as St. Matthew’s House, Boys & Girls Club of Collier County, Better Together, Valerie’s House and The Immokalee Foundation. “There are so many people who aren’t getting mental health services. But they are involved in other organizations. And they have a really positive relationship with those organizations. That’s how we can reach them,” she says.
Alise and her husband, David, moved to Southwest Florida seven years ago after having successful careers in Ohio—David was the chairman of a bar grating manufacturer, and Alise owned a private marriage counseling practice and taught at the University of Akron, where she received her doctorate. They didn’t know much about Southwest Florida but were intrigued by a story about the Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) men’s basketball team’s ‘Dunk City’ run in the 2013 NCAA Tournament. Once they visited, they were hooked. “We just fell in love with the community, like so many others who come here,” she says. “I had this incredible feeling of home.”
Before moving to town, the couple made a $1 million donation to FGCU to help establish a community counseling clinic on campus. Once here, Alise stepped in as director. She’s also volunteered in the community, serving on boards for the Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples, Child’s Path, Better Together, and Boys & Girls Club of Collier County.
Alise left the university to start the nonprofit but remains passionate about training the next generation of counselors; two of the organization’s interns received their master’s from FGCU. The program has dual benefits: providing free mental health care for those who need it and allowing young counselors to get hands-on training (ideally, the experience inspires them to stay and work locally).
The goal is to create a model that can be replicated in other com muniti es. The pandemic has brought many mental health issues to the forefront, Alise says, and an organization like Counseling for Community Wellness can help people get the services they need. “We’ve always known that our mental health is fragile,” she says. “During the pandemic, we saw just how fragile we were.” —Justin Paprocki