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Children’s Supportive Services was started by Joe Keele in 1996 as the first agency in Idaho providing community based psychosocial rehabilitation and clinic services to children with severe emotional disturbances.
Joe’s reason for starting this agency were expressed in his personal vision of the need for this type of treatment when he wrote:
“I feel a responsibility to get this service to as many kids as we can because it works. We will be able to save a large number of these kids from going through the HELL that untreated - or poorly treated mental illness is.”
In a subsequent Post Register editorial Joe wrote:
When I meet someone for the first time, the conversation usually starts something like this: “So, where do you work, Joe?” “I’m the administrator of Children’s Supportive Services. We provide in-home children’s health services.”
My new acquaintance’s eyes move downward as he slowly shakes his head. Usually a shadow of sorrow crosses his face as he says, “That sounds very depressing. You must see lots of sad things that you can’t do anything about.”
This is where the conversation gets fun. I get to explain a successful program, a program that helps children with severe emotional disturbances and their families have a better and more normal life.
Parenting a child with an emotional disturbance requires different skills than parenting a child who does not have an illness, much as the child with severe asthma requires different knowledge and skills than a child who does not have asthma. Both the parent and child need to learn to watch for the symptoms, learn what stressors will likely cause an outbreak and then implement a strategy to deal with the symptoms if they do occur. These skills can be learned, but parents are not likely to have this knowledge without being taught.
We are at a time of great hope and optimism for the child with an emotional disturbance. The chances of these children growing to be productive members of society, rather than nonproductive disabled adults, improve with each small step we take.
From 1996 until his death in 2001, Joe built the foundation for helping children with mental illness in Idaho. Children’s Supportive Services, Inc. will continue to build on that beginning.