THE CENTER FOR AGING RESOURCES' HERITAGE CLINIC

NATURE OF AGENCY
POPULATION SERVED
PROGRAMS

NATURE OF AGENCY

The Center for Aging Resources' Heritage Clinic is a geropsychological center for older adults and their families. Heritage Clinic provides community-based mental health services and adult daycare for dementia patients. Services include in-home psychotherapy for homebound seniors; individual, collateral and group psychotherapy for older adults in the clinic; psychological assessment, cognitive screening for older adults concerned with memory changes, clinical mental health outreach with hard-to-reach elders, mental health services for crime and elder abuse victims and adult daycare. Heritage Clinic’s mission is “to promote psychological healing and improve the quality of life of older adults who experience emotional or mental difficulties,” which is accomplished through the “provision of excellent direct services based on sound research and contributing to the development and training of mental health professionals.”

Heritage Clinic’s services focus on reducing risk of premature institutionalization and on reducing barriers to service often experienced by older adults. Thus, services are offered in nontraditional manners, including providing services in clients’ homes, extending services when clients may be hesitant to receive services (clinical mental health outreach), assisting those who have limited cognitive ability (service to persons with dementia), have a wide range of ethnicities and have low incomes.

The Center began operating in 1979. For 22 years, it was a department of Fuller Seminary’s Graduate School of Psychology’s training clinic. The Center amicably separated from Fuller in 2001 in order to expand its service mission for the older adult community. The Center is a private, religious nonprofit organization, based on a Christian tradition. It provides services to any older adult regardless of religion, and hires staff regardless of religion. It similarly provides services and hires staff regardless of other diversity characteristics. The Center’s religious affiliation may contributed to the supervisors being more sensitive to addressing spiritual and religious issues with clients, and to providing supervision from a broad array of perspectives on religion.

POPULATION SERVED

Heritage Clinic focuses on serving disenfranchised older adults for whom financial, cultural, linguistic, physical and/or other barriers prevent access to traditional mental health services. It serves older adults (60 years and older) as well as younger disabled adults. Many are of low income and varied ethnicity. Clients are eligible for services regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or religious affiliation. Services are offered in varied languages, including Spanish. Many clients are homebound. Clinical issues include: physical disability, chronic illness, crime victimization, elder abuse, domestic violence victims/perpetrators, and a broad range of psychopathology (depression, anxiety, PTSD, personality disorders, psychosis, psychosomatic disorders, delirium, dementia, etc.). Occasionally younger family members of the client are seen. Clients are referred to the program mainly through social workers, medical providers, law enforcement and Adult Protective Services. Over 500 elders are served directly each year. Hundreds more are served indirectly through community lectures, mutli-disciplinary consultation and workshops.

PROGRAMS

The Center for Aging Resources' Heritage Clinic offers two distinct internship programs in professional psychology.

In Los Angeles County, the Center’s predoctoral internship program is located in Pasadena and is a member of APPIC (Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Center; 10 G Street NE, Washington DC 20002; 202-589-0600). The internship in Pasadena is accredited as a predoctoral internship in clinical psychology by the American Psychological Association. For questions regarding the internship program's accreditation status, please contact the Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation at 750 First Street NE, Washington DC 20002-4242, or 202-336-5979. The program was selected for the 2011 Award for Innovative Geropsychology Training by the Council of Professional Geropsychology Training Programs.

In San Diego County, Heritage Clinic’s predoctoral internship program is located at its Mission Gorge office and is a CAPIC (California Psychology Internship Council) member program.

Los Angeles County

San Diego County