GLENDALE : ‘Outreach Van’ to Aid Mentally Ill

Pacific Clinics, a San Gabriel Valley nonprofit mental-health organization, will expand its homeless outreach project into Glendale thanks to funding arranged by Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

An “outreach van,” whose two social worker-operators hope to make contact with and provide treatment for mentally ill homeless people, should be cruising the city streets sometime about the first week of May, said clinic President Susan Mandel. She stressed that the program will support existing services.

“Our goal is to get a person to shelter and food and medical care and psychiatric care,” she said.

The latest Census figures indicated that there were 99 homeless people in Glendale.

Mandel said the van will only be in Glendale between 20 and 25 hours a week, although the two workers will be full-time Pacific employees. The funds will also cover fees for a psychiatrist to join the team about two hours a week, medications, insurance, gas and any other expenses.

Field treatment of this nature is important, Mandel said, because those of the homeless who are mentally ill often do not have access to the medications that can stabilize them and allow them to function normally. Once a person is stabilized, he or she will be referred to existing Glendale programs.