“Our tagline is ‘Therapy that fits,’” said Tracy Stackhouse. As a co-founder of Developmental FX (DFX), Stackhouse and her team provide comprehensive pediatric therapy to underserved Denver families.
Stackhouse and retired colleague Sarah “Mouse” Scharfenaker set up DFX in 2003 and are serving multiple communities and schools throughout the city. They started by offering their treatment to families on playgrounds. Becky Crowe, then CEO of the Clayton Campus, invited the DFX team to relocate to northeast Denver as part of her vision for a campus hub for children and families.
“We made a purposeful decision as a nonprofit in the Denver community to come here,” Stackhouse said. “We are really showing all the schools and daycares and as many folks as we can to help build trust and collaboration.”
DFX’s individual treatment approach stems from Stackhouse’s extensive research at the Mind Institute at UC Davis. Under Randi Hagerman, Stackhouse and Scharfenaker were able to pull from groundbreaking work on the Fragile X Syndrome.
“Fragile X syndrome is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability and the most common known single-gene mutation leading to autism,” according to the Mind Institute.
Stackhouse and Scharfenaker wanted to take the medical expertise that they acquired through decades of combined experience and make it accessible. “We try to help families, especially in the Northeast part of Denver, that have historically not received really easy access to care,” Stackhouse said. “We are experts, but we try so hard to be really approachable and not overwhelming.”
For several years, DFX has used a program called Clinic in Community to establish relationships at local schools. The program is currently partnered with a handful of Denver schools, such as Montview Elementary, Little Einstein’s Academy, St. Elizabeth’s, Stanley British Primary, Garfield Montessori and the Logan School for Creative Learning.
The program provides occupational and speech therapy from DFX staff to support the students. The partnerships have evolved and include the SWIFT-R grant to further support some of the more underserved schools that need extra resources. The SWIFT-R grant provided by Caring for Denver allows the school to employ expert-level mental health care without depleting its funds.
Kaitlyn Ogden, director of Garfield Montessori, has taken full advantage of DFX services. Garfield Montessori is conveniently placed yards away from the DFX headquarters, allowing their pre-k and kindergarten to have the luxury of convenience. Rebecca Nofer has been their resident occupational therapist for the past six months.
“The teachers and Becca come together to better understand the kids’ needs,” Ogden said. “Becca has background and knowledge that the teachers don’t. She [Nofer] is resourcing the teachers with more tools to support the kids.”
“We usually start with observations and reflection meetings to give them insight on their students from our perspective, and then we provide direct, active support in the classroom,” Rose said. “It’s structured a lot of different ways depending on what the need is.”
DFX takes a similar, individualized approach when supporting teachers.
“By supporting teacher mental health, you’re also supporting student mental health,” said occupational therapist Emily Rose. Rose is able to transition from her DFX role to that of a “developmental navigator” at both their partner and grant-funded schools.
Rose is excited to see the success and expansion of the DFX outreach and has Spanish-speaking immersion programs in her sights. “We’re open to helping anyone that is underserved, and that is the point of the grant,” Rose said.
DFX provides treatment services to patients aged 0 to 21, as well as their families and teachers. DFX occupational therapist Ariel Harris said, “We have opportunities to meet with parents to support them through different educational opportunities, whether that looks like creating different exercise programs or reviewing different aspects that affect their kid’s lives.”
Among the DFX team, there are occupational therapists, speech therapists and mental health therapists. The uniqueness of a child’s needs can be met in all genres. Based on a play-based therapy model, each child has the opportunity to expand their own ideas, no matter how unique.
“Whether it’s to create an obstacle course or to create this big pretend play idea, we’ll help support them in order to expand their ideas,” Harris said.
Within pediatric therapy, there are special accommodations that differ from the sit-and-talk model in traditional therapeutic offices. DFX involves playtime activities to make a direct correlation between occupational therapy and interactive engagement from their child patients. Every step in pediatric therapy must be tailored to the uniqueness of each child’s needs.
DFX is a groundbreaking resource in the mental health community. The combination of expertise and community focus offers a comprehensive approach to mental rehabilitation and support. Caring for Denver will fund SWIFT-R for two years, and DFX will attempt to add two new schools to the grant every trimester.
“We are really culturally responsible and sensitive as best we can. We work really hard to be as accessible and open,” Stackhouse said. “We want it to fit exactly like a glove for every child and family that we work with. It’s not one size fits all.”
