Sources & methodology
This page covers where our information comes from. For how we check it once we have it, see how this directory works.
Where the information comes from
- Missouri 211 — a starting reference point for what a comprehensive statewide directory needs to cover. If you don't find what you need here, 211's own search covers far more ground than we do today, and is worth trying directly.
- Missouri Department of Mental Health — the source for state-level program listings, and general background on how Missouri's behavioral health system is structured.
- Direct verification — calling an organization or checking its own website before a listing is published, regardless of where we first heard about it.
- Practitioner referrals — recommendations from working clinicians about where they actually refer clients. This is often the most useful source we have, since it reflects which organizations are responsive in practice, not just which ones are technically listed somewhere.
About our category structure
Our nine categories and their subcategories are our own original structure. They were shaped by looking at how established information-and-referral directories — Missouri 211 among them — generally organize services, since that's a well-tested way to think about the range of need a directory like this has to cover. But this is not a reproduction of 211's own taxonomy, which is a licensed system (the AIRS/211 taxonomy) that belongs to them. Any similarity is in the general shape of the categories, not in copied structure or wording.
What we don't claim
This directory is not a replacement for Missouri 211, and we don't claim to match its depth. 211 covers the entire state at a level of detail we're still building toward. Where we don't yet have a listing for what you need, their search is the better next step, not a dead end.
Questions about a source
If you want to know where a specific listing's information came from, it's noted on that resource's own page. For anything else, contact us at hello@missouricounselor.com.