Located along a gritty section of Long Beach Boulevard, across the street from a 99 cent store and a used-car dealership – far away from the bright lights and glamour of Southern California – sits a non-descript two-story building. The only marking on the façade is a brightly colored mural above the entry way. Amidst a rainbow and dolphins, it reads, “Paths to Wellness and Recovery.”  This is Los Angeles County’s Long Beach Mental Health Clinic.

I enter the building and go through security under the watchful eye of the guard and a few clinic clients hanging around. I am taken upstairs to meet members of the “team.” What I find is a group of individuals utterly dedicated to improving the lives of their clients. They are the foundation of the “Care Clinic” – a fairly new, one-stop delivery system that fully integrates health care screenings, substance abuse and mental health services into a client’s treatment plan.