NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Mental Health Clinic Serves 140 This Year

About 140 people have sought services at the new Macdonald Carey East Valley Mental Health Center this year, according to officials.

The East Valley area was left without any mental health services in June, 1989, when the county, in a budget crisis, closed down the East Valley Mental Health Center in North Hollywood. The new center opened in December at 11631 Victory Blvd.

“It’s been a nightmare for the past several years,” said Ian Hunter, executive director of the nonprofit San Fernando Valley Community Mental Health Center in Van Nuys, which staffs the new center. “New mental health programs are a rarity.”

Hunter said his Van Nuys mental health center received more than 500 new patients when the county clinic closed.

The county is funding the new center, which offers outpatient services for clients who suffer from mental illness. A staff of ten provides individual therapy, group sessions, medication monitoring, crisis intervention and other services.

The center is named after Macdonald Carey, a mental health advocate who plays soap opera doctor Tom Horton on “Days of Our Lives.” Carey, who has a family member who is schizophrenic, hopes to start helping those 1,000 patients soon.

“Thirty-nine percent of the homeless walking the streets are mentally ill,” said Carey. “All of these people should be taken care of. That’s what we want to do here. We want to go out into the community.”