KidsPeace 2023 Annual Report Highlights Efforts to Meet Increasing Demand for Services Amid Severe Staffing Shortages

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SCHNECKSVILLE, PA (March 19, 2024) – For the past several years, KidsPeace and other mental healthcare providers have faced a dilemma that arose in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic: a dramatic rise in demand for services coupled with a severe shortage of available workers, resulting in limits on needed help for many children and families as the pandemic’s pressures eased.

But in 2023 KidsPeace noted progress in addressing this dilemma, through a combination of workforce strategies and program advancements.

The organization’s 2023 Annual Report, published this week, details these efforts and their success in advancing the KidsPeace mission of providing Hope, Help and Healing to children, adults and those who love them:

  • KidsPeace was able to increase salaries and pay rates for its direct care workers.
  • It also upgraded benefits packages – especially in terms of features of particular interest to younger and more diverse workers – and adopted new approaches to training and associate engagement.
  • Recruitment strategies also were adjusted to better meet the needs and desires of this younger workforce.
  • And KidsPeace implemented an array of new and expanded services throughout the offerings of its Continuum of Care, intended to address the evolving needs of our clients in a post-pandemic world.

The report also notes KidsPeace saw increases in program admissions, number of clients served and episodes of care delivered in 2023 over 2022’s levels – along with significant improvement in severity of symptoms among its clients, and continued high rates of satisfaction in client surveys.

As in years past, more than four out of every five dollars spent by the organization in 2023 went toward programmatic expenses related to providing care and treatment to those in need.

To learn more about KidsPeace’s challenges and successes in 2023, go to www.kidspeace.org/2023-annual-report and download a copy.

Since 1882, KidsPeace has been building on its expertise to give hope, help and healing to children, adults and those who love them. Through its comprehensive range of residential treatment programs; accredited educational services; unique psychiatric hospital and foster care and community-based programs, KidsPeace is dedicated to helping people connect, transform and overcome their challenges to ensure a stable future, transition to adulthood and gain independence. Since its doors opened, more than 300,000 children have participated in one of the multitude of programs KidsPeace offers.

For additional resources or more information on how to get involved, become a foster parent or make a donation, please visit www.kidspeace.org. Follow us at www.facebook.com/kidspeace.org or on Twitter @KidsPeace.

 

Information Provided By:
Robert Martin
Director of Communications