El Camino Health unveils youth mental health clinic
El Camino Health unveiled a new Los Gatos office for its youth mental health clinic at a ribbon-cutting ceremony late last month.
The clinic was previously housed at another, smaller office in Los Gatos at 815 Pollard Road, but finalized a move to its new location at 700 West Parr Ave. earlier this year. The clinic provides dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, a form of talk therapy that aids in emotional regulation, for local youth and their families.
The relocation of the clinic, which offers support under a program called ASPIRE, or After-School Program Interventions and Resiliency Education, was facilitated with the help of donations from the El Camino Foundation.
Jennifer Zumarraga, director of child and adolescent psychiatry for El Camino Health, said having more space will help ASPIRE increase its client base. The Los Gatos and Mountain View clinics serve 150 to 200 patients a year, she added.
“We’re hoping to increase that just because we want to reach as many people as we can,” she said.
Since the services the clinic offers are holistic, involving both children and their families, having a bigger space is key to their operations, Zumarraga said.
“Now we’ve got larger conference rooms and we can be more efficient,” she said.
Clients and their families have been receptive to the changes. Zumarraga said a bigger space with more windows and sunlight has also made patients feel more welcome.
“We’re excited about the space,” she said. It’s really positive for all of us, and then it also helps all the people that are working with the kids here to be in a nice bright space, too.”
Lisa Peevers, whose daughter was previously a client at the old Los Gatos clinic office, agreed that the new office is more welcoming.
“It was an older building,” she said of the old location. “It might have turned people away, maybe because it just looks the way that it did.”
Peevers, who drove her daughter from Santa Cruz for regular sessions at the old office, said the quality of care they received from ASPIRE outweighed any issues they had with the setting. Still, she said she’s excited about the spacious new offices, adding that it’s “one less thing to think about” for the clinicians who work there.
Peevers, who works in health care herself, said she knows having a great setting isn’t essential to providing excellent care, but the new offices are certainly a positive addition for the clinic.
“I’m really excited they have this big beautiful space to help so many people,” she said.