Preferred Family began offering services 1n 1979. We can proudly say "we were born in a barn", because our first facility actually in a converted barn on the outskirts of Kirksville, MO. The project formed as part of new initiatives in Federal Block Grant Funding for substance abuse treatment services. That first year, the entire budget of the agency was $150,000. It was sufficient to pay for a program director, a counselor, a bookkeeper and a secretary. The first year of operations, Preferred provided services to approximately 450 clients.

Fast forward to today. At the close of our 32nd year, Preferred Family Healthcare, Inc. now has an annual budget of over 30 million dollars. We offer services from over 30 sites in 23 cities and towns in Missouri and Kansas. Our company headquarters is still located in Kirksville, but we are now in a sleek, four story, 63,000 square foot facility that is one of the most recognized buildings in town. Our other sites are located in modern, tastefully decorated buildings that are as far from a barn as you can imagine. The original barn-housed program, by the way, has taken up residence in a 16,000 square foot building we had built new for us in 1990.

But Preferreds growth is not just about pretty buildings and an expanding funding base its about people, the people we serve and the people we are. In 2011, Preferred Family Healthcare, Inc. will provide mental health, substance abuse and developmental disability counseling services to over 11,000 people throughout the state of Missouri and in Kansas. We will provide both temporary and long term residential care to almost 2,400 adults and teenagers; some of whom will stay with us in order to complete a prescribed course of treatment, others who will receive extended residential support because they have no other safe place to live. We have over 100 residential care beds at our various facilities, staffed 24 hours per day.

Our locations serve rural, suburban, and inner city areas of the state, our clients are diverse and reflect every type of age, gender, and ethnic demographic in Missouri. The requirement for admission to our programs is simply the need for our services. In many locations, we provide specialized care, focusing on womens needs, older adults, or adolescents. Preferred is the largest provider of substance abuse treatment to teenagers in the entire state of Missouri. Clients come to us from many sources, such as physicians, social workers, employers, and family members. A large percentage of our clients contact us of their own volition, because they know of our reputation for quality, caring services in their community.