The following article was published by the Deseret News on Thursday, September 12, 2002:       In 1912, when the Charity Organization Society of Salt Lake opened its doors, people had many of the same problems they do today. Alcoholism. Unhappy marriages. Thoughts of suicide. And this was before welfare. There was no government safety net for people living in poverty. Kathryn Della-Piana, shown at the new office in Murray, is the center's director. Paul Barker, Deseret News       But family problems can seem sweeter in retrospect — as you may notice if you go to the 90th birthday party at the Family Counseling Center, the agency that started out as the Charity Organization Society. At the open house you will see photos of clients of long ago. It will probably make you smile to see a social worker, wearing her prim little hat, visiting with a mother and child. You'll smile to see the sunny little chap who has just been given a new tweed coat.       It seems as though there were some happy endings, back then. In fact, there are happy endings today, as well, says Kathryn Della-Piana, director of the Family Counseling Center. "I have been counseling for over 20 years and I continue to be amazed at the resilience and courage of the human mind and soul as people change and heal and grow."       The 16 therapists at the Family Counseling Center spent more than 13,000 hours with clients last year. They helped Utahns deal with depression, sexual abuse, divorce, anxiety attacks, grief, marital difficulties, medication adjustment, parenting, substance abuse and domestic violence. And they did it all with a sliding scale fee so that low-income or uninsured clients got the same professional care as those who had insurance.       But if you think Utah families are getting all the help they need these days, Della-Piana will pull out a copy of United Way's latest needs assessment. In it, researchers surveyed Salt Lake, Summit and Tooele counties and concluded that lack of affordable mental health care was one of the top two problems facing Utahns. In these three counties alone, 123,000 people can't afford the help they need. Della-Piana says 70 percent of the center's clients make less than $24,000 a year. Some of them work two jobs and have no mental health insurance. The Family Counseling Center used to be known as the Charity Organization Society. This photo is from an old annual report. Courtesy of the Family Counseling Center       A woman named Kathy never would have known the low-cost counseling was available, were it not for the fact that her 16-year-old daughter was hospitalized and the doctor recommended a center therapist for outpatient treatment. Kathy went, too, and soon realized that she was the one who had problems. She realized her daughter was acting out because she was terrified that Kathy was going to die.       Kathy had an eating disorder and weighed 72 pounds when she first walked in the center's door eight years ago. Her first session with a counselor lasted three hours and ended with her being hospitalized herself. After that, Kathy struggled for years. Today she weighs 136 pounds and feels fat but has learned to trust her counselor's assessment that she looks much healthier than she did before. She knows she feels better, Kathy says.       "My daughter is very relieved now that I am well," says Kathy. She continues to see a counselor at Family Counseling Center, and continues to pay only $9 for her visits.       As for a man named Paul, he too pays less than $10 for his visits to the Family Counseling Center. That may change, however, because, for the first time in a year, Paul has a job. He is bi-polar and had struggled with depression for years before finding a counselor who could work with his physician to help Paul get his medications adjusted. Paul had a bad experience at another mental health facility before finding this one. He wonders why the center is not more well-known in the community.       A woman named Ann agrees that more people need to know about the center. She's protective of her privacy, though. So she doesn't often tell people that she went to marriage counseling there and that now she and her husband have never been happier. The center was known as the Family Service Society of Salt Lake City when it occupied this building on South Temple.       "Our counselor, Nancy, has been really good to help us be able to see things we didn't always see before. Like maybe how my husband does things to show his love. But he doesn't talk about it a lot. Like he might fold the laundry. That's his interpretation of love."       Ann spent years begging her husband to go to counseling. When he finally agreed, they saw several therapists who didn't work out. Now, several years after finding the Family Counseling Center, Ann and her husband go for months at a time without seeing their therapist. They just celebrated their 11th anniversary.       One marriage saved, one more happy ending.       You don't have to work in the mental health field for 90 years to know that a family's problems are also the community's problems, Della-Piana says. "There is a cost to society for not addressing these issues."       Or as Paul tells the story of his own happy ending, "I have a full-time job now and I'm feeling very positive about it. That's a big-time savings for the taxpayers." The above article was published by the Deseret News on Thursday, September 12, 2002

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