Los Angeles Child Guidance Clinic Inc history

Originally founded as Pasadena Child Guidance Clinic in 1926, Pacific Clinics is now the largest contract provider of services for the mentally ill in Los Angeles County, as well as offering services in four neighboring counties.

South Bay Children’s Health Center (SBCHC) was founded in 1947 to meet the most pressing unmet health care needs of low-income children in the South Bay.

In 1962, the Mental Health Association of Los Angeles County and a group of caring visionaries opened the doors of the San Fernando Valley Child Guidance Clinic our former name (a community mental health Center) to a waiting list of several hundred children and a professional staff of three.

In 1967, in response to the growing need for mental health services for children in the South Bay, and in affiliation with the Los Angeles Child Guidance Clinic and USC School of Medicine, SBCHC’s Child Guidance Clinic was established.

Under the leadership of executive director Susan Mandel since 1981, it offers programs for adults, children, transitional-age youth, adults and seniors.

In 2007, it merged with Portals, another major contract provider with a well-recognized track record in housing and vocational services.

By 2008, SBCHC integrated the South Bay Youth Project, formerly run by the City of Redondo Beach, into its array of services allowing us to offer a full range of child and youth focused mental health services in a clinic environment as well as within local schools.

© 2018 South Bay Children’s Health Center.