GLENDALE : Mental Clinic Gets Loan for New Site

A $1-million low-interest loan from the state will be used to buy a new building for the Verdugo Mental Health Center in Glendale, the clinic’s executive director said Wednesday.

The center will move its operation for 600 adult patients to the new site at 1538 E. Colorado Ave. in the spring, Lynn Brandstater said.

“We’ll be able to move people into treatment faster, and it will be easier for families to receive treatment together,” Brandstater said.

The clinic, opened in 1957, now leases a building at 417 Arden Ave., where it treats adult patients with chronic mental illness on an outpatient basis.

The move will bring the adult program closer to the clinic’s Glen Roberts Child Study Center at 1530 E. Colorado Ave., where children of the mentally ill can obtain counseling.

“Even if not all of the family is receiving treatment, we like to include them in our care planning,” Brandstater said.

About 400 children go to the Child Study Center.

The loan was issued by the state treasurer’s office Wednesday as part of a special program of the California Health Facilities Financing Authority, which enables small, nonprofit health providers to finance projects inexpensively.

The $1 million is to be paid back over 30 years at 7.5% interest. The clinic has been trying to obtain the loan for two years.

The facility also provides youth job training, and alcohol and drug abuse treatment programs.

The new building, which has 11,000 square feet, had been the site of an antique store, medical offices, a nail salon and other commercial uses.