Next Step Clinic

Executive Co-Director: Dr. Amy Vaughan Van Hecke

Executive Co-Director: Leah Jepson, MSW


What We Do:

Our clinic helps families in Milwaukee who have concerns about the mental health and developmental health of their children. We offer the following services:

Family Navigation

Screening and Evaluation for Autism

Therapy Services

Training

Telehealth

 

Who We Serve:

Our clinic is in the Metcalfe Park neighborhood of Milwaukee, on the second floor of the Next Door Foundation, 2545 N. 29th Street, Milwaukee, WI 53210, to make services for families accessible. Our focus is on serving families who are underserved, who experience barriers to accessing services, including challenges due to race, income, ethnicity, geographic area, participation in the foster system, refugee status, and other reasons.

We provide services for families with children aged 15 months to 10 years; however, our goal is early identification and early intervention. If multiple children in a family need autism evaluation, and any of the children are over the age of 10, we will do our best to also evaluate the older children in that family.

Cost of Service:

Our services are currently free to Milwaukee families who are eligible for/receive public assistance, Badgercare, and/or Medicaid. Our goal is to make children’s developmental and mental health services accessible.


Referral Process:

*Note. As of fall 2024, we have openings for Family Navigation services only. We will update this site when openings for Assessment and/or Therapy are again available.

 If you are a concerned parent/caregiver, please contact us at 414-209-3631 or help@nextstepclinic.org.  You may state the age of your child, concerns you have, and a good time/number to contact you. You may also download a Referral form and email it to us, or take a picture of it and email it to us at help@nextstepclinic.org .

If you are an educator, case manager, advocate, mental health professional, or medical provider, please fill out a Referral form and obtain a Release of Information (ROI)** form.   Please email both the Referral and ROI to us at help@nextstepclinic.org .

 **ROIs require signatures. If you or your client do not have access to a scanner or a fax machine, we will accept pictures of the ROI sent via email. The client may provide the signed form at the first appointment.

Referral Form Link

Release of Information Form Link

(clicking on the link(s) will download a Microsoft Word document)

After a referral is received, it is processed and each family is assigned a Family Navigator. A Family Navigator will make contact with the family to gather more information, assess needs, and complete a developmental screening. The child and family will then move on to assessment or therapy with our Licensed Clinical Director and clinician team. After assessments or therapies are complete, families will have a final meeting with their Family Navigator, Clinical Director, and other clinicians involved in the child’s assessment or therapy process (with the family’s permission) to discuss the findings of the evaluation or therapy and the next recommendations. The Family Navigator will then work with the family to set up the next steps/recommendations, whether those services occur inside or outside of our clinic.

 

Our Team:

Community Advisory Board

Executive Co-Directors

Director of Clinical Services

Family Navigators

Practicum Trainees

Practicum Supervisors

Partners

Funding

Contact Us

Address:

2545 N. 29th Street, 2nd floor
Milwaukee, WI 53210
Phone: (414) 209-3631
Fax: (414) 488-0057
E-mail: help@nextstepclinic.org