This Long Beach nonprofit hopes to combat teen depression, anxiety with hyper-focused services

A Long Beach youth-focused nonprofit is celebrating its 50th birthday by doubling down on what they say is most needed: resources to combat teen depression and anxiety. 

For the Child has served Long Beach children, teens and families since 1974 by providing child abuse treatments and trauma-informed mental health care for children and teens through counseling and therapy. On July 18, the nonprofit broke ground on its latest effort to specifically provide more and better care for teens: the 2,299-square-foot John Gogian Teen and Family Center, as an extension to its Bixby Knolls location. 

The new center will provide For the Child’s (FTC) teen patients with their own entrance and waiting room, two rooms for group therapy and workshops as well as five teen-centered counseling offices. In an effort to reach more teens, FTC will also be hiring five additional therapists, bringing their counseling staff to a total of 25. 

For the Child Executive Director Michele Winterstein said the nonprofit had been noticing a rising trend of teens in need of their mental health services, but that need “skyrocketed” during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The trends were already happening; the isolation of being disconnected from social support,” Winterstein said. “After COVID we saw a tremendous increase in suicidal [teen] patients.” 

According to the Children’s Health Council, youth depression and anxiety doubled after COVID-19, resulting in a quarter of youth globally experiencing higher levels of depression than before the pandemic. 

Teens can receive help with a wide range of issues at For the Child, such as help healing from sexual abuse, molestation or sexual assault, witnessing domesting abuse, or problems with their peers. Before the pandemic, teens made up a third of FTC’s clientele. Now, half of their services are focused on helping teens, according to the nonprofit. 

For the Child was originally founded under two names by the same founders — Cedar House in 1974, and Sarah Center in 1984 — assisting children who had suffered abuse, neglect, and sexual assault, respectively. The two organizations merged in 1996 to form For The Child.

More than half the teens that For the Child serves live in the zip codes 90805, 90813 or 90806. According to the nonprofit, these areas in the city have shown historically higher levels of abuse than the Los Angeles County average, Winterstein said. She added that their teen services are provided to 65% Hispanic youth and 20% Black youth. 

These zip codes also have poverty levels that are higher than the state average, according to the U.S. Census. According to Winterstein, 90% of the youth being served at For the Child are low-income. The nonprofit offers help enrolling families in medical coverage, and provides services to those without any medical coverage as well. 

The new teen and family counseling center will allow For the Child to serve an additional 105 teens with either weekly or twice-weekly individual therapy sessions annually. They will also focus on enhancing their prevention groups and parent workshops, as well as family support. 

Parents who receive For the Child services to help with their younger children have in recent years begun asking the nonprofit to help them understand their teens more. A shifting social media and technological landscape has made for new and complex issues teens are dealing with, Winterstein said. 

“We’ve seen a great increase in sexual abuse on the internet and social media-based abuse. Some of it is grooming, some of it is pressure in relationships like coercing, bullying, sending pictures, spreading those pictures around, blackmailing,” Winterstein said. “They need help dealing with their peers on social media and the laws and how to react to and report blackmailing.”

Winterstein said they hope to reach more teens by implementing peer-to-peer counseling as “a sort of front line” to suicide prevention and for allowing teens to have sensitive conversations they may be nervous to have with an adult. For the Child hopes to teach its patients how to understand the early warning signs of suicide, which is invaluable since they have more contact with their peers. 

FTC’s services include teen groups, but Winterstein said that teens often ask for more individualized services. In order to increase immediate access to professional help, FTC’s licensed therapists will be training students earning their master’s degree in related fields to conduct supervised consulting. 

Construction of the John Gogian Teen and Family Center is expected to be complete in January or February 2025. The John Gogian Family Foundation is the main donor for the center, with additional help from the W.M. Keck Foundation, The Ahmanson Foundation, Boeing Employees’ Community Fund, and donations from For The Child board members and other individuals.

FTC’s upcoming Long Beach Gives fundraising efforts will focus on furnishing the center in a way that is teen-friendly and welcoming. Those who wish to donate beforehand can make a donation on the website and specify that it’s for the Teen and Family Center. 

Families and teens can receive services from For the Child by calling (562) 422-8472 or visiting 4565 California Ave.