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More than 60 people showed up when Citrus Counseling Services (CCS) opened its doors to the public on July 27. The service wanted to show the public what they offer in terms of services to the community, their recently opened Trauma Recovery Center was a focal point.

Guests included community partners (YouthHope, NAMI, Women in Faith, Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint USD, University of Redlands, Redland police, Redlands Homeless Services, Inland Regional Center, the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office), program funders (IEHP, Department of Behavioral Health, Probation Department, the Redlands Unified School District), Redlands Area Interfaith Council members, donors, friends as well as elected officials. County supervisor Dawn Rowe, Redlands Unified school board member Michele Rendler and Redlands Mayor Paul Barich were there.

“I was very impressed with the size of the business and the type of services they offer,” Barich said. “We need to address mental illnesses and how to treat the problem. I would like to see if the city can work with them. With our homeless shelter opening soon we can use their advice.”

(Groundbreaking for the conversion of the Good Nite Inn to the Redlands homeless center was held on Thursday, too late for pubicaion.)

Prior to the event, CEO Roger Uminski II said, “We never had a formal grand opening for the Trauma Recovery Center. This open house will be the first time we get to show it off to the public. The work we did the last two years to get it started resulted in a contract renewal from the state that more than doubled its funding.”

Small groups were led through the facilities of early childhood care all the way to family and adult therapy as well as the Trauma Recovery Center.

The model for the Trauma Recovery Center began in 2012 from the University of California, San Francisco — “A hospital where they received victims of violent crimes coming into the ER and then coming back again and again and realizing their basic needs for survival weren’t being met,” said Erin Mancha, chief clinical director at the counseling service while leading a tour Wednesday night.

She called the model a “whole-person care,” which includes finding safe housing, helping apply for victims’ compensation benefits, medical care, getting back to work or education.

“Whatever they need to feel safe,” she added.

The center partners with law enforcement, University of Redlands and Redlands Unified, women’s homeless shelter, Redlands Family Service Association, the district attorney office as well as the county Probation Department.

“There are 18 [Trauma Recovery Centers] currently in California and we are the first and only one in San Bernardino County,” said Mancha.   

“We have provided services to this community for 40 years,” said Uminski at the event. “Last year we served about 1,400 people covering about 14,000 hours of services and I think we are going to at least double that.”

Rendler said, “Especially since COVID started many more kids have needed [mental health care]. We have about four agencies that we work with. And what I like about this is it’s right here in town.”

People can self-refer at the Citrus Counseling Service.

“We are in a medical underserved area with behavioral health especially,” said Uminski. “People with insurance cannot find a provider to help with their need.”

He called one of their projects “the gap-filler project” where the organization as a teaching facility is looking to help close the gap of increased demand on mental health care.

The counseling service wants to make mental health care more widely accessible.

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