Child & Adolescent Mental Health Care

Treatment Wherever it is Needed

A comprehensive mental health program for economically disadvantaged children and adolescents with serious emotional and behavioral problems. Interventions are family focused, identifying family stressors and drawing upon family, cultural and community resources.

Services are provided in partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and the Long Beach Unified School District.

The Family Focused Mental Health program is divided into two subprograms.

Make a Referral

To Make A Referral Call
(562) 427-7671

All Services Available in English and Spanish.

Child Protection Experience

For The Child’s team of therapists and social workers has over forty years experience strengthening families and providing mental health care to children and adolescents supervised by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and the Los Angeles County Superior Court, Juvenile Dependency Division. Our family-focused model integrates assessment, treatment and supportive services for families receiving child protection services to avoid losing their children to out-of-home placement, as well as services for foster children, relative caregivers, foster and adoptive parents.

Early Childhood Mental Health

Our Early Childhood Mental Health Program (children birth to five years-old) collaborates with other agencies and community partners to provide a coordinated system of care in our community for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Most of these young children come to us from pediatricians or child welfare because of abuse, neglect or other risk factors in the home -maternal depression, parent mental health problems, substance abuse or difficulties in bonding and attachment.

If a young child shows the following behaviors, consult with an Early Childhood Mental Health Professional.

  • Problems feeding or sleeping
  • Frequent crying and difficult to comfort
  • Failure to thrive
  • Long or frequent temper tantrums
  • Persistent oppositional or defiant behavior
  • Aggressive behaviors
  • Extreme sadness or withdrawal
  • Overly active or impulsive
  • Pattern of excessive clinginess
  • Chronic anxiety or fearfulness
  • Becomes rigid when held or touched
  • Not meeting developmental milestones
  • Unusual sexual behaviors

Children birth to five receive developmental screening and comprehensive mental health and psycho-social assessment. Referral connections are made with Harbor Regional Center for developmental delays or disabilities and with local schools for speech and language services and other individualized educational plan needs. Young children newly detained by the Department of Children and Family Services (child welfare) receive Multidisciplinary Assessment Team Services (MAT) to identify mental health and family support needs and to ensure timely linkage to services. Innovative therapy methods for children birth to five require parent or primary caregiver participation and our therapists have intensive, specialized training on incorporating parents into the therapy activities to support the recovery of their young child. All services are provided in English & Spanish, with linkage to community partners for other language needs. Funded through the LA County Department of Mental Health.

School Age & Teen Mental Health Program

To ensure fast and easy access to help when needed, For The Child therapists travel beyond agency walls, taking mental health care to schools, family homes, and other community locations. Our “therapy on wheels” program reaches out to children and families with the greatest need, eliminating barriers created by poverty, language, transportation and family isolation, drawing upon family, cultural and community resources. Trauma-informed care is at the heart of this program, with more than two thirds of the school-age children and adolescents served reporting histories of sexual trauma, physical abuse, neglect or exposure to violence at home or in their neighborhoods. Research supported therapy methods are provided in English & Spanish, with linkage to community partners for other language needs.

Although psychiatric medications are infrequently used, our psychiatric team works closely with mental health clinicians, clients and their families to provide psychiatric evaluation and medication management when essential to care. Funded through the LA County Department of Mental Health.