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…
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1985
Older Adult Services begins mobile community outreach to housebound and convalescing seniors, offering individual, group and family counseling as well as mental health/substance abuse services. Extensive training and educational efforts help address the needs of seniors, their families, caregivers, physicians and court personnel.
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1985
Family Education lecture series for families of consumers diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders begins at a time when such information was rarely available for families. The ongoing series provides in-depth presentations on mental health topics for families and the public.
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1985
Asian Pacific Family Center is founded to address the behavioral healthcare needs of the Asian Pacific community across the lifespan. Innovative prevention/intervention, parenting and mentoring programs become an ongoing model for San Gabriel Valley communities and their efforts to fight youth gang and drug activity.
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1992
Mental Illness Law Enforcement Systems (M.I.L.E.S.) Conference, held annually in the fall, is launched to increase collaboration between law enforcement and mental health professionals to improve intervention with the mentally ill in potentially critical situations.
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1996
Quality Assurance Board (QAB) is set up to give consumers a vehicle to voice their recommendations and to improve communication among consumers, staff and communities. Issues addressed include housing, transitional youth homelessness and health insurance.
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1996
Pacific Clinics Institute is established to provide opportunities for internships and professional career development, conduct evidence-based research with best-practice applications, offer consulting and training services, and publish and distribute educational materials for consumers, families and professionals.
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1997
F.A.C.E.S. (Families Assisting Clinics to Enhance Services) Board, comprised of parents with children and teens in Pacific Clinics programs, is established to helps shape policy, recommend new ideas, and provide peer support.
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1997
The Hye-Wrap program for Armenian immigrant students begins in collaboration with the Glendale schools, helping youth, their families and school personnel with behavioral problems related to acculturation challenges and other mental health issues. The program has expanded to include additional school districts and parenting classes, plus a similar model for Latino students.
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1998
Latino Conference begins as an annual event to focus on mental health topics in the Latino community.
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1998
Familias Unidas, a Spanish-language family education program, provides education and support to families of Pacific Clinics' Latino consumers. The program serves as the catalyst for the development of two Spanish language videos to educate and inform about mental illness and to lessen stigma.
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2000
Multicultural Conference, held in collaboration with other agencies, brings together professionals to learn about best practices to more effectively serve persons of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
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2001
Spirituality & Mental Health Conference attracts professionals from behavioral health, spiritual and faith-based fields to explore the relationship of spirituality to mental health, healing and recovery. Conferences were also held in 2003 and 2006.
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2001
Pasadena City College/Pacific Clinics Mental Health Worker Course graduates its first class of certified personnel. An ongoing course, now also at Santa Ana College in Orange County, its graduates have found new career opportunities at Pacific Clinics and elsewhere.
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2001
Latina Suicide Prevention Project for secondary school girls begins with federal funding. Program expansion and renaming as the Latina/o Youth Program later reflects the inclusion of boys, pre-adolescents and transitional age youth (16-25) at seven schools in the southeast Los Angeles County area.
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2004
The Mental Health Services Act via Proposition 63 becomes law, providing new funding for new initiatives that will do “whatever it takes” to help the persons with mental illness make progress in their lives. Pacific Clinics responds quickly by developing an array of MHSA-model programs for children, transitional age youth (TAY), adults and older adults, categorized as Full Service Partnerships (FSP), Field Capable Clinical Services (FCCS) and Wellness Centers. MHSA funding also will go to the Clinics’ paraprofessional Mental Health Worker training programs in collaboration with community colleges in Pasadena and Santa Ana, offering coursework and field practice to consumers, family members and others in the community who might wish to work in the mental health field.
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2007
Portals, a 50-year-old Los Angeles-based agency known for its expertise in psychosocial rehabilitation, housing and vocational services, merges with Pacific Clinics in July and becomes a separate division of the agency.
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2007
Genesis, a mental health program for pregnant girls and teen mothers in La Puente, is established.
