Doc Wayne Youth Services, Inc.

Doc Wayne combats challenges around accessing mental health treatment by being a mobile service. Doc Wayne coaches travel to schools, community centers, or residential centers to provide services on-site. Using sport as a hook to engage youth in therapy results in a notably low "no-show" rate and high levels of interest from youth and families. All of Doc Wayne’s programming is guided by our innovative, proprietary curriculum: Creating Champions. Creating Champions layers clinical and social emotional learning goals onto an easy-to-grasp sports framework. The curriculum is derived from two therapeutic models: the Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC) Framework and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). By combining these models with sport-based language and fun activities, Doc Wayne coaches engage youth who may not progress in traditional talk therapy.

Doc Wayne’s Chalk Talk® program reimagines group therapy by harnessing the power of team sports like soccer, basketball, and football. Through sport-based mental health therapy, children become resilient and thoughtful leaders. The accessible and innovative nature of Chalk Talk® has earned Doc Wayne several accolades, most recently including the 2019 CBH Innovation Award. Co-funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the C.F. Adams Charitable Trust, and the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health (MAMH), the CBH Innovation Award is awarded to a non-profit organization in recognition of its effort to fill an unmet need or gap in the children’s behavioral health care delivery system through the creation of an innovative program or practice.

Our Therapeutic Mentoring (TM) program complements our Chalk Talk® program. Our team collaborates with the MassHealth Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative (CBHI) to provide this additional opportunity for students to improve their mental and behavioral health while building supportive relationships with trusted adults. Therapeutic Mentoring provides structured, one on one, strength-based support services for the purposes of addressing needs and building skills. This addition to Doc Wayne’s services is anticipated to be a transformative, engaging opportunity for the hundreds of young people in our communities who seek support.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have transitioned to Telehealth, virtual services. To date, our team has completed thousands of Telehealth sessions. We launched The Champions Network in July 2020, our virtual training program for youth development professionals working with youth around the globe. We envision licensing out the “Doc Wayne model” to fellow providers, educators, and professionals in hopes of strengthening our shared effort to support youth and families and professionalizing sport-based therapy.

Doc Wayne envisions a world where every child in need of mental health support has access to engaging, culturally competent, and consistent services. We recognize our innovative approach on mental health treatment is not the solution or the only solution for everyone, but we believe teamwork and shared learning is vital to propelling this sector forward. With these goals in mind, Doc Wayne is striving to make our sport-based approach available to more communities while also collaborating with other thought leaders and professionals to share resources and insight. Sport-based therapy has been shown to be just as effective as traditional outpatient therapy, and the skills promoted in our proprietary curriculum can be adapted to promote well-being in a variety of contexts.

Doc Wayne strives to be a “game changer” in the mental health sector by fulfilling an unmet need for widespread awareness, kindness, and the ability to leverage creative solutions, like sport, to tackle mental health concerns. By shifting the narrative surrounding mental health treatment, Doc Wayne strives to debunk the stigma associated with seeking support. Supporting the mental health of all youth and families is in the best interest of our society at large because it translates to positive social interactions and contributions. Children from minority populations are disproportionately affected by poverty, living in underfunded school districts and food deserts. Schools in these districts are notorious for being chronically understaffed with mental health professionals who are overworked and turning away children they cannot support due to a lack of capacity. The inconsistent access to proper mental health support amongst youth is a result of systemic conditions and policies which foster inequity. Doc Wayne strives to support school and community staff to fill in the holes these systems leave open.

Our team sees success as positive changes in youth behavior, such as youth beginning to use healthier coping skills, feeling confident to engage in sport and fitness, and becoming leaders in their school or community. An individualized treatment plan is designed for each youth based on their strengths, identified needs, and developmental stage. These plans are re-evaluated every 6 months, giving coaches and families a chance to determine if goals need to be adjusted, treatment needs to be altered, or the child has successfully mastered their goals and can be discharged from Doc Wayne. The input from families and community staff helps our coaches understand if the same behaviors presented in Doc Wayne sessions translate to life at home, school, or in the community.