Tri-City is celebrating recovery and stability

Today, Tri-City Mental Health Center is actively serving 1,413 clients through a single facility. After closing two of its facilities and referring 546 clients predominantly from surrounding cities to other agencies, Tri-City is now focused on the clients in its core mission areas consisting of Claremont, La Verne and Pomona.

Tri-City's new interim chief financial officer oversees conservative management of its resources on a day to day basis. The Board is finalizing a five-year fiscal plan as a roadmap to long-term financial health. And negotiations with the state and county are squarely addressing the agency's debt.

Here's a summary of then vs. now:

Frequently-asked questions

Q. How is the agency doing today?

A. The agency is fiscally stable and is serving 1,413 clients from the Tri-City area. It serves children, transitional age youth, adults and older adult consumers through a broad array of outpatient services.

Q. What happened? Why did Tri-City file for bankruptcy?

A. Tri-City expanded aggressively during the mid-1990s, growing quickly from a $5 million to a $30 million operation. That expansion caused shortfalls that could only be corrected by restructuring the public healthcare payment system. When other solutions did not come in time, Chapter 9 bankruptcy was the only solution to giving Tri-City time to restructure its financial operations.

Q. How much was owed?

A. Since the expansion of its services in the mid-1990's, Tri-City incurred debt of approximately $17 million. Tri-City is addressing these obligations in the bankruptcy case.

Q. Were the cities of Claremont, La Verne and Pomona also owed money from Tri-City?

A. Yes. Though most of the debt lies with the state and county governments, the three cities provided loans to assist Tri-City. These obligations are included in the bankruptcy case.

Q. Were mental health clients left in the lurch by Tri-City's reorganization?

A. No. Tri-City continues to serve most of its clients. To the extent some of Tri-City's programs have been discontinued, Tri-City has, with the assistance of the County, transitioned such clients to other service providers.

Q. Is today's management the same as the team that led the agency into expansion and financial insolvency?

A. No. The philosophy of expansion, which saw the agency explode overnight from $5 million to $30 million, was addressed by the Board. In February of 2002, the Board appointed Dr. Luann Martenson as the agency's director and a new financial team was brought on board.

Tri-City's staff now closely reflects the clients it serves

Tri-City's staff is a reflection of the clientele served by the agency. Some 71% of Tri-City's staff are ethnic minorities. Half of the direct service staff is bi-lingual, representing Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, Taiwanese and American Sign Language.

Tri-City looks to its roots in refocusing its service model

During Tri-City's explosive growth in the mid-1990s, the agency reached out beyond the three sponsoring cities and embraced a model of “professional” treatment. Today Tri-City is true to its roots, and true to the model that made it a dependable pillar of community support for decades. Today's model is centered on family relationships, self-help and adult programs. Importantly, the families are included as a valued part of the treatment team.

Tri-City serves its community through a variety of programs

In sticking to its core mission, Tri-City serves Claremont, La Verne and Pomona through many programs.

Children and transitional age youth programs include a full range of mental health case management, individual and group, substance abuse, crisis and medication services. The services are provided in schools, in-home, or at the clinic.

The adult and older adult programs also offer many options including mental health case management, individual and group therapy, substance abuse, vocational, crisis and medication services.

Adult services includes a very active consumer operated self-help clubhouse program, BIACO (Boredom Is A Cop Out).

An intensive case management program (AB2034) provides services for homeless who have a history of interactions with the legal system.

Bankruptcy Overview

Tri-City officials are currently engaged in negotiations with the County of Los Angeles and the State of California in an effort to formulate an exit plan to be approved by the Bankruptcy Court. These negotiations, thus far, have been promising and Tri-City is anticipating a successful emergence from bankruptcy.