Room to grow

When the Mountain View-based Community Health Awareness Council celebrated the grand opening of its new headquarters this September, the event was billed as the "Miracle on El Camino."

The new building, located near the intersection of W. El Camino Real and View Street, is significantly larger than the organization's previous digs at the corner of Church and Hope streets. CHAC paid no money for the larger space, since both the old and new buildings were controlled by the same landlord, who agreed to swap locations free of charge.

The local non-profit, which focuses on delivering affordable community mental health and substance abuse services to local children, teens and adults, opened its new offices at the beginning of July, and according to CHAC representative Carrie Carstens, the new facilities have been "great."

"It has definitely been a blessing," Carstens said. "We need the space."

Due to the former building's size, Carstens said, the organization was having trouble meeting demand for services. Group meetings and classes on subjects such as parenting skills were constrained, and the limited number of individual offices meant that CHAC counselors weren't able to meet with as many people as they now can.

The Community Health Awareness Council is one of this year's beneficiaries of the Voice's annual Holiday Fund drive.

Supporting CHAC means supporting a stronger, healthier, happier community, Carstens said. The organization offers individual, couples and family counseling; psychotherapy; teen pregnancy prevention and support services; substance abuse support groups; help with diagnosing and treating learning and cognitive disabilities; and many more programs focused on improving mental health and well-being.

Assessment tools

Dr. Stewart Kiritz, chief psychologist and director of training at CHAC, runs the organization's newly established Assessment Clinic, which conducts extensive psychological assessments of local men, women, teens and children at the CHAC offices. Though the CHAC has done this kind of assessment since it was founded in 1973, they only decided to get "really serious about it" a year ago, Kiritz said.

Now they have an entire program devoted to diagnosing patients with learning disabilities and mental conditions, such as ADHD, dyslexia, depression and anxiety.

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Room to grow