Pacific Clinics: About Us

History

Pacific Clinics' history as an outpatient community mental health agency began in 1926 when, as Pasadena Child Guidance Clinic, we began serving troubled youngsters referred by the local school district; the program initially was located in the school district's basement.

In the mid-1940's, the Clinic began serving returning fathers and other family members coping with the effects of World War II. The agency was incorporated in 1944 and in the mid-1950's “irrevocably dedicated to charitable purposes”. As early as 1956, our leaders recognized the need to develop and nurture competent clinical personnel and began what is now a nationally recognized student/intern training program.

The “Clinic” became Pasadena Guidance Clinics in 1981 since, although its child and family programs continued to grow, it had begun serving adults as well. In 1987 the agency name was changed to Pacific Clinics to reflect the growing diversity of responsive behavioral healthcare programs that the agency was providing to persons of all ages in the region.

Other 1980's milestones included:

  • Adding services for older adults – a unique mobile outreach effort that served seniors in their homes and healthcare facilities.
  • Recognizing the need in the San Gabriel Valley area of recent Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants of all ages for culturally responsive services by opening the Asian Pacific Family Center in Rosemead.
  • A groundbreaking school-based program opened in San Marino, followed by additional school-related services that continue today with the Pasadena Unified School District.

In the 1990's, Pacific Clinics began services in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. We were also:

  • One of the first agencies to accept clients with substance abuse issues and to develop an integrated services model so that co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders could be treated by the same team of clinicians at the same Clinics site.
  • Enhancing and expanding programs for underserved Latino and Armenian communities.
  • Leading the region and state with the PC 2000 strategic initiative that avowed the agency's commitment to consumer and family involvement in determining service provision as well as appreciation and development of agency staff.
  • Developing the Pacific Clinics (Training) Institute (PCTI) to enhance student and intern training efforts, consumer and community education, and staff development/enrichment programs.

From 2000 to present, with programs now operating in Ventura County, the Clinics also added:

  • Collaborative training programs that educated and encouraged clients and family members to become mental health workers, providing much needed paraprofessional personnel who could draw from their unique experiences and empathy to offer effective services to peers/fellow consumers.
  • Anti-stigma campaigns and educational activities for our communities, staff, and consumers themselves – promoting acceptance and realization that mental and behavioral illness is a medical condition to be recognized and treated like any other serious health condition. Consumers formed an Anti-Stigma Group Speakers Bureau, getting trained through Toastmasters International to speak before community and other groups about mental illness and the need to dispel stigma.
  • Programs funded by Proposition 63 – the Mental Health Services Act – passed in 2004 and utilizing a new 1% tax on annual personal income over $1 million.

As a result of its growth over the past two decades - from a $10 million budget in 1992 to the current $95 million level - Pacific Clinics has been able to direct both improved programs and advocacy toward a number of underserved groups whose members may also have behavioral health challenges:

  • The homeless or those at risk of homelessness, including transitional age youth (age 16-25) and adults who have run afoul of the justice system.
  • Parents and families trying to move off the welfare rolls.
  • The many working poor for which the lack of either private or government healthcare benefits is a critical problem.

A Few Important Pacific Clinics Milestones Over Recent Decades…