The Southern California Counseling Center first opened it’s doors in 1966. Since then, the Center has achieved numerous landmarks in pursuit of its mission: Changing lives and strengthening communities by providing affordable mental health care to people in need.
Below you’ll find a few recent highlights.
In 2013, SCCC began providing mental health services in Watts, through our collaboration with Watts Labor Community Action Committee (WLCAC). Initially, this venture was met with skepticism. By 2017, SCCC’s Outreach program in Watts had served more than 1,000 adults and youth. It had also resulted in the first ever waitlist for non-mandated counseling in WLCAC’s history.
The success of SCCC’s efforts in Watts resulted in our decision to lease a building in the community. In March of 2018, we opened the doors to our first ever satellite counseling Center. Six months in, SCCC-Watts is flourishing.
Through the years, it became evident that many clients suffering from ongoing psychiatric issues, such as bipolar illness or depression, were struggling to maintain counseling and make meaningful changes in their lives. To better serve these clients, the Southern California Counseling Center made it its goal to offer affordable, easily accessible psychiatric services available. The first major step took place in 2014 when Dr. Eleanor Curry joined the SCCC team to provide onsite psychiatric assessment and medication management.
It wasn’t long before a wait list for services grew. In 2017, Dr. Lucy Sloninsky came on board, doubling the capacity of the program. As far as we are aware, SCCC is the only community mental health center offering sliding scale psychiatric services in the United States.
In 2015, SCCC forged a partnership with the Karsh Family Social Services Center to begin providing mental health services in Koreatown.
As part of this collaboration, the Karsh Center is extending access to all of the Karsh Center’s core offerings to SCCC clients. These resources include: Food Pantry, Dental Care, Vision Care, Legal Aid, Book Distribution, ESL and Civics Courses, and Child Care Referral Services
In 2016, counselors at SCCC began meeting with clients virtually, through WeCounsel, a HIPAA-compliant online mental health care portal. The program has continued to grow – now all new counselors are trained to use WeCounsel. In 2018, we hired John Berndt to take the helm as SCCC’s first ever online clinical program manager.
In 1966, Hans Hoffman, a psychologist, and Ben Weininger, a psychiatrist, founded the Southern California Counseling Center with a belief that no one should be denied mental health counseling because of limited financial means. Since that time, SCCC has evolved to provide an array of programs and services designed to address the diverse mental health needs of the communities we serve. Our mission has remained the same and we continue to believe that mental health care is a right, not a privilege.