By Sarah Pierce
El Independiente
The main clinic of La Frontera Center, one of ArizonaŐs leading providers of mental health services, is quietly celebrating 20 years of service to South Tucson and the surrounding community.
Located at 502 W. 29th St., the main clinic is one of 19 locations in Pima County from which La Frontera Center operates. La Frontera grew considerably since its founding in 1968, as it served nearly 8,000 people last year alone. The main clinic treated almost 3,500 of those patients.
The clinic offers an outpatient service for general mental health, DUI classes and childrenŐs therapy. These are instrumental programs tailored to meet the needs of Southern Arizona residents.
In the early 1990s, Arizona ranked fifth nationally in beer consumption, according to the La Frontera center. The Tucson Police Department stated that in1997, Pima County experienced a 46 percent increase in child abuse reports, and in 2000, Pima County had 3,289 runaway juvenile reports. La FronteraŐs programs are necessary to battle these statistics.
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, 1,600 to 2,000 homeless individuals in Arizona suffer from a serious mental illness. One of La FronteraŐs more successful programs has been the Readily Accessible People Program. The RAPP program is one of many that have become popular among Tucson and South TucsonŐs homeless population, said Karen R. Chatfield, La FronteraŐs director of communications.
RAPP is a mobile task force scouring the streets five days a week to offer assistance to the homeless. The two-team outreach program brings them to the drop-in center for food, clothing and prescreening for mental health and substance abuse. A number of intervention programs are offered to those who test positive for having a mental illness, Chatfield said.
"These programs are advertised primarily through word of mouth," she said. "Plus, staff are almost always out there." Chatfield said that itŐs this word of mouth that has made La FronteraŐs programs so successful.
"I would be hesitant to single out any program as more successful," she said. "I consider them all to be successful because of their progress."
La FronteraŐs success makes it ArizonaŐs largest nonprofit community-owned behavioral health center and has gained it national recognition. Former First Ladies Rosalyn Carter and Hillary Rodham Clinton both visited the center.
With no immediate plans to celebrate the main clinicŐs anniversary, Chatfield said La Frontera plans to continue its success by implementing two new programs within the next year.
La Frontera received nearly $2 million in grants from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Center for Substance Abuse to start-up the new programs.
The grant from HUD will provide safe living environments for residents while they wait for placement in more permanent housing, according to a January press release. The grant from the Center for Substance Abuse will be used to provide help for refugee families considered at high risk for substance abuse and violence.