A New Mental health service that caters to children calls Meridian home

Parents no longer need to drive an hour and a half to get their children the help they need. Today Growing Tree held its ribbon-cutting ceremony. We hear more from the owner on what type of services they will be providing The City of Meridian.

"So we provide ABA therapy, which is applied behavior analysis for children with Autism. So we want to provide therapy to families so that they don't have to travel to Tupelo, Jackson, and Hattiesburg. They don't take that hour-and-a-half trip anymore." said Simch Bendet, the Growing Tree Owner.

The Director shared they hope to make the services free to families in need.

"One of the things is this cost of living is getting higher, obviously. And we want to make sure that families don't have to debate about co-pays, deductibles, and co-insurance is that we can limit those costs, and possibly make it free. We've been doing that for most families and we want to make sure that children with Medicaid can start getting services.," said Bendet.

The Clinical Director says that her specialty is feeding therapy and helping those who don’t have verbal speech to communicate in other ways like pictures or devices.

"So with Autism, there are deficits across many different areas. So we will offer social skill training and parent training. I do a lot of collaborations with schools because we know that teachers, it's not their fault. They are burnt out, there are no resources. So we are going to be a major resource for them," said Dr.Kayley Sanger, the Clinical Director.

The Growing Tree hopes to continue to expand and help as many families as possible.