D’Veal Family and Youth Services Meets the Gold Standard, Again

One of Pasadena’s “hidden gems,” D’Veal Family and Youth Services has been awarded its second consecutive three-year accreditation from The Joint Commission for its Behavioral Health Care and Human Services program.

D’Veal is a community-based mental health agency which provides an array of comprehensive mental health and early intervention services to children and families.

The Joint Commission, also known as TJC, is a United States-based nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c) organization that accredits more than 22,000 US health care organizations and programs. In fact, a majority of US state governments recognize Joint Commission accreditation as a condition of licensure for the receipt of Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements.[3]

“We’re ecstatic,” said founder John McCall, LCSW, ACSW, and Chief Executive Officer, in a recent interview.

“The Joint Commission,” he continued, “in terms of behavioral health care, is the gold standard of the industry. So we’re just proud of the accomplishment of being able to meet those standards, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The pandemic brought with it its own unique challenges, said McCall, who said that the group “identified a lot of things that we were not aware of particularly, with people of color, the stress of not having enough income, or food, and having to decide whether you pay for minutes on your phone (, no comma) for therapy sessions, or to buy food for your kids.”

That situation led D’Veal to apply for grant money to buy devices for students and provide them with internet hotspots. McCall pointed out the difficulty in providing telephone therapy for families who may not have access to a computer, have only one shared device at home, and/or weak internet service.

Said McCall, “We identified as many families as we could, and we got some money, and we purchased them a tablet.” McCall also said that a new donor recently agreed to provide ten new devices to make available to client families.

As McCall noted, “Therapy can occur in many settings, and we want to help kids take advantage of everything offered to them.”

Providing hotspots is but a small fraction of the services D’Veal provides, but is indicative of its “whatever we need to do” thinking.

McCall founded the organization in 1993, after working with Pacific Clinics for five years in the prevention and intervention field with at-risk youth. Once established, the group worked to develop after-school programs, transportation, family therapy, and other community services.

Much of the emphasis of the D’Veal programming is to help students finish school. As McCall explained, “If you don’t finish school, the long-term ramifications can impact you the rest of your life.”

Ironically, McCall noted that the “future is bright for the organization,” because “there are so many families who are struggling and requiring mental health services. What we do fits in.”

As the group notes on its website, “As funding for programs on state and federal levels are always at risk, it’s our job as service providers in the community to find ways to fill in those gaps. Whether it’s a mentor to keep children committed to school and learning, or resources for parents who need help meeting the growing demands of raising children, we continue to provide the tools and the people to help.”

For more about D’Veal, see https://dveal.org/about-us/