Renovations will help DeKalb business expand behavioral health services

DeKALB – Dozens flocked to a ribbon-cutting ceremony this week to commemorate the completion of renovations to the Association for Individual Development and its newly reconfigured office space, 304 N. Sixth St., Unit C, DeKalb.

The event, put on by the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce, was meant to highlight facility improvements that were a long time in the making for the agency, project leaders said.

Dani La Ha, associate vice president of behavioral health for AID, said the renovations were much needed for the office space.

“It allows us to expand services,” La Ha said Thursday. “[It’s] a lot of what we were already doing but at a larger scale and having private offices. … Now that there’s more offices, we can hire more therapists [and] be able to take on more clients.

“But also, the big thing that we’re really excited about is expanding to children and adolescents. Now we have a couple bigger offices that can be used for family therapy to help serve kids. Currently, we’re only [serving clients ages] 18 and over.”

The renovations added five new offices and a conference room to the building layout.

There’s also a waiting room for clients to use, which La Ha said the agency didn’t have before.

“It was just a chair, which isn’t very comforting for community members coming in for services,” La Ha said. “So now they have a space to go while they’re waiting or if a family member is waiting for somebody. [It’s] to increase that comfort and the ability to bring more people into the building.”

While the renovations were ongoing, staff was advised to be flexible in working with one another around the office space. At times, some would work from home.

“The last thing we wanted to do was interrupt any client services,” La Ha said. “We juggled. We did a lot of office sharing [and] assigning offices out so that the clients would still get services.”

In absence of the recently completed renovations, La Ha said AID saw a growing waitlist for its behavioral health services.

“It just allows us to serve more clients and not have to have the waitlist,” she said.

The renovations to the office space were paid for in part with a $20,000 grant awarded by the DeKalb County Mental Health Board, project leaders said.