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Side Institute News Brief—January 2004
West Coast Center for Social Therapy to Create Mental Health Programs for
St. Johns Well Child & Family Center
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Social Therapeutic Approach Soon to Be Available in
Low-Income Communities of Los Angeles
January,
2004 -- The Los Angeles-based St. John's Well Child & Family Center (SJWCFC) has joined forces with the West Coast Center for Social Therapy to create a new community mental health program. The new community mental health program will join a health education theater program that reaches close to 10,000 community residents.
This ambitious project will bring the East Side Institute's cutting-edge, social therapeutic approach to human development and community building to the clinic's sizeable Latino and African American patient population.
The new program will offer: a clinical practice with social therapy groups, individual and family counseling; a youth development component based upon the nationally known "Let's Talk About It" program now in its tenth year at Erasmus High School in New York City, and a community outreach model called, "Hablamos/We Speak," that brings adults and young people together to dialogue on issues in their lives.
"Hablamos," a workshop in talk-show format, was created by youth from the theatre program working alongside Joyce Dattner, the West Coast Center's Director of Training. Dattner and other West Coast Center staff will also train the new SJWCFC mental health practitioners in the social therapeutic group approach and the "Lets Talk About It" model and provide on-going consultation.
Licensed by the California State Department of Health Services, St. John's provides free medical and dental care to over 30,000 children annually through its network of free clinics and programs. Over the last few years St. John's has seen tremendous growth and has begun to supplement direct care with programs for empowerment. As CEO Jim Mangia puts it, "the health of our children and our communities is as much about community growth and individual development as it is about physical exams and immunizations."
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