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CSI Founder Honored
SACO – The Reverend Robert M. Howes of Kennebunk was honored by Counseling Services, Inc. at a special ceremony July 8 in recognition of Rev. Howes’ vision and leadership in creating CSI’s founding organization in 1963.
Rev. Howes, retired pastor of South Congregational Church in Kennebunkport, was honored for creating the Community Child and Family Guidance Association, one of southern Maine’s first community mental health agencies, which grew over the past five decades into York County Counseling Services (1971) and then Counseling Services, Inc. (1991).
Today, CSI serves more than 7,000 southern Maine children, adults and families suffering with mental illness and substance abuse. But in the early 1960s, there was no community mental health system. People suffering serious mental health problems were often placed in state mental institutions, and medical treatment consisted almost exclusively of powerful anti-psychotic drugs with adverse side effects and electric shock treatment.
Into this time of ignorance and pain for mental health sufferers came Rev. Howes, a unique visionary, a man more than a decade ahead of his time. He and other area clergy were doing a great deal of psychological counseling (Rev. Howes earned a master’s degree in psychology from Boston College, in addition to his Harvard divinity degree), but they all felt the need for additional support and guidance. Rev. Howes approached Dr. Linwood Brown, then head of Sweetser Children’s Home for emotionally disturbed youth. Dr. Brown offered his staff’s support, but the real need for expanded community mental health services became increasingly apparent.
Rev. Howes and Dr. Brown pulled together a group of people drawn from Biddeford, Saco, the Kennebunks and Arundel, who eventually approached their respective towns for funding. This was an entirely new concept, but thanks to the respect and credibility of Dr. Brown and the area’s religious leaders the towns bought into the idea. With funding, the group hired three professionals to provide direct services, a psychiatric social worker (Sarah Dale), a psychiatrist (Dr. Willem Nieuwkerk) and a psychologist (Stanley Payson). These hires led to the creation of the Community Child and Family Guidance Association, which provided support to area clergy doing pastoral counseling and to others in psychological distress.
Before the Consent Decree in 1988 which created the community mental health system in Maine…before government-funded mental health services…before enlightened, client-centered therapies and effective, safe medications, there was the Reverend Robert M. Howes – the historical founder of CSI.
Rev. Howes was presented with the first Reverend Robert M. Howes Founder Award for his vision and leadership in creating CSI’s founding organization and his contributions to community mental health at a special ceremony held July 8 at CSI’s administrative offices in Saco. In future years, this award – the agency’s highest honor – will be given to individuals who have made significant contributions to community mental health.
Rev. Howes was pastor of South Congregational Church for 34 years, retiring in 1989. He was made Minister Emeritus. He and his poet wife, Christine, now live in Kennebunk and Quebec, Canada.
CSI is a comprehensive mental health agency with clinical sites in Biddeford, Springvale, Kittery and Westbrook.
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