SFVCMHC, Inc.

Mission Statement

The San Fernando Valley Community Mental Health Center, Inc. founded in 1970, is a private, non-profit agency dedicated to enhancing the mental health of individuals and families within the community. Primary emphasis is placed on providing services to children, adolescents and transitional age youth with serious emotional disorders, and adults and older adults with severe and persistent mental illness. The Center is committed to treating all clients with dignity and improving their quality of life.

Programs and Services

By providing a wide spectrum of programs and services, the San Fernando Valley Community Mental Health Center, Inc. strives to:

· Facilitate and encourage the development of each client to his/her highest level of functioning and potential.
· Provide effective and sensitive therapeutic services based on each client’s individualized needs, strengths and choices.
· Maximize the involvement of clients and family members in planning, evaluation, and implementation of services.
· Provide a continuum of therapeutic programs that include appropriate alternatives to psychiatric hospitalization and effectively serve clients in the least restrictive setting possible.
· Eliminate negative perceptions and increase awareness and understanding of mental illness.

The Center currently operates 28 programs at 15 different sites, providing assessment; crisis intervention; and therapeutic; rehabilitative; vocational; residential; and case management services. The Center has an extensive history of providing mental health services for the following groups:

· seriously emotionally disturbed (SED) children and adolescents, ages 10 - 17 in its outpatient, school-based, and residential programs
· transitional youth, ages 17 - 21, who present with a severe mental illness and/or have serious emotional problems which prevent them from living independently
· clients who are dually diagnosed (mental illness and concurrent substance abuse disorder)
· clients who are CalWORKS participants who have identified a domestic violence, mental health, or substance abuse barrier to employment
· mentally ill adults and families
· senior adults who have a mental illness and/or who are homebound
· homeless mentally ill and those who have recently been released or who are pending release from the criminal justice system. Additionally specialized services for several monolingual populations are offered.