Community Counseling Services Inc.

Community Counseling Services Inc. of Hot Springs hasn’t received a lot of publicity through the years, but the nonprofit has grown into a sizable operation since opening in 1969.

The practice provides mental health services to residents of Garland, Clark, Hot Spring and Montgomery counties, operates three clinics and oversees programs in many of the local schools. In 2007, Community Counseling opened a 45,000-SF, $7 million headquarters in Hot Springs.

Tom Martin, CCS’s vice president for strategic development, said the nonprofit’s goal of treating all patients and nonprofit structure make the job worthwhile.
“We actually are giving people a present and future and making a difference in people’s lives,” Martin said. “And as a nonprofit, and profits we have are put back into the organization.”

The continued viability of Community Counseling owes much to the nonprofit’s president and CEO, Donald Martin, and seven board members, Tom Martin (no relation to Donald) said. The nonprofit estimates that it provides mental health care to 4,625 people annually. Counseling opportunities include preschool for emotionally disturbed children and therapy teams in area schools.

Community Counseling’s 160 staff members work to accommodate the patients with whom they interact daily, Tom Martin said.

Community Counseling is now focusing on raising money to build a new mental health building on its 38-acre lot in Hot Springs. The new building will house the nonprofit’s programs for school-age children, Tom Martin said, and will hopefully open in 2011 or 2012.

“Mental health diagnoses are being realized in people younger and younger in our society and there really is a vast need for therapeutic services for school-age children,” he said.