Countywide : Victims, Offenders Provided Counseling

A nonprofit agency in Santa Ana and its new satellite office in Tustin provided free counseling to 458 youths and their families--1,400 people--in 1990.

The youths, referred by schools or police in Costa Mesa, Tustin, Newport Beach, Orange and Santa Ana, had committed minor offenses or had been victims of sexual or physical abuse.

“We try to emphasize this is family counseling because a problem isn’t isolated within the child,” said Tamara L. Guisso, a director of the Assessment and Treatment Services Center.

Police can refer a youth to the center instead of Juvenile Hall if the youth is in trouble--for the first time--for theft, truancy, alcohol or drugs.

The police “are recommending someone they feel we can help from getting processed through the court system and ending up with a police record,” Guisso said. “They don’t have to do it; they’re just making a judgment call.”

Although the center’s success rate is almost impossible to measure because of the difficulty of tracking clients, a study by the Tustin Police Department found that 84% of its referrals had no further contact with Tustin police.

Nine licensed counselors and an intern see almost 50 clients a month and their families.

“We see kids not functioning well because of several reasons: single parents, learning and developmental disabilities and low family incomes,” said Dr. Thomas Shaw, clinical director. Special support groups have been created at the center according to needs and trends. For example, when counselors discovered that 13-year-old boys made up the largest client group, special group sessions were set up for them. Other groups offer counseling for grandparents raising children, single mothers and victims of abuse and incest.

United Way provides 10% of the $500,000 budget; corporate gifts and fund-raising groups contribute the rest.