Play Therapy Room Gives Escanaba Children a New Way to Heal

For Delta County families, finding a mental health provider who specializes in treating children and accepts Medicaid can be very difficult. According to Pathways Community Mental Health, only one local provider meets that need. This highlights a major gap in mental health services available to children who need it the most.

Pathways' Delta County Children's Clinical Team set out to close that gap by bringing play therapy into its newly renovated Escanaba office. The approach is evidence-based and built for children ages three to eleven, using toys, art, and sensory activities to help kids communicate what they cannot yet say in words. The idea was not new to Pathways. A similar room at its Marquette office,  also funded by Superior Health Foundation in 2019, is used almost daily and has supported healing for many of the area's most vulnerable children.

The Escanaba play therapy room has been fully operational since March 2026, and staff are already seeing the impact. The dollhouses have helped facilitate conversations with children about splitting time between two homes. Magnetic tiles and toy cars kept a child with severe autism calm through an hour-long appointment. Art supplies have also provided teens with a creative and engaging activity that helps them feel more comfortable and invested during therapy sessions.

The project also reached beyond the clinic's walls. Home-based clinicians, who see children with the most intensive needs in homes, schools, and other community settings, built individualized portable play therapy kits so families can access the same care without the added barrier of transportation. Pathways also added a dedicated art space, an always-open area for therapeutic books and games, and a children's table and bookshelf in the clinic lobby so families have something to do while they wait.

The play therapy room and additional supplies have become an essential component of the work carried out by the children’s clinical team, and staff have expressed strong appreciation for the expanded resources available to support children and adolescents in the healing process. The project has had a meaningful positive impact on clinician morale by equipping staff with more effective tools to engage and support the youth they serve.

Learn more about Pathways Community Mental Health on their website.

SHF awarded a $6,766.44 Equipment Grant to support this work.