...an innovative Mental Health program to vulnerable members of the Greater Northridge Community
The Westlund Center donor lost her year-long cancer battle on Thursday, February 23, 2023. Exercising her self-determination right, she took advantage of Washington States Death with Dignity law and transitioned peacefully on a sun-filled afternoon surrounded by friends and neighbors at home.
The Westlund Center at CSUN will continue her decades long commitment to service through the unique community service program she inspired.
Well done, Laura Westlund.
Our Purpose
The Westlund Center (TWC) is a privately funded Charitable Trust designed to provide an innovative, research-based mental health program to the Greater Northridge, California community.
The program operates in conjunction with California State University's Northridge (CSUN) Department of Social Work Practicum Education program and its internship requirements commencing with the 2023-2024 academic year.
One (or more) second-year Master of Social Work students will be selected each year to complete their graduation Practicum Internship obligations with TWC. Second-year student interns from the Stateside (campus-based) and Online MSW programs are eligible to apply.
Our Future
In 2022, TWC established four goals:
Goal 1. Identify the Community Service Area
Operating from the map on the right, we identified a service area encompassing nine cities, covering approximately 101.2 square miles. This area includes roughly 504,697 residents and is represented by 12 unique postal ZIP codes (excluding PO Box ZIP codes).
Goal 2. Identify Existing Mental Health Programs in the Service Area
Our first report documented the following existing mental health services within the service area: 46 brick-and-mortar organizations, 4 crisis service providers, 115 private practitioners, and 22 faith-based mental health programs.
Goal 3. Determine Additional Program Needs
The community assessment from the first report, supported by findings from the second report, highlighted the need for a Video Tele-Mental Health service as our method of program delivery.
Goal 4. Prioritize Identified Needs
The second report established interviews to be the next step. However, out of respect for the identified service providers' time, privacy, and confidentiality, we decided to develop the Greater Northridge Community Mental Health Services Questionnaire. Service providers will complete the survey through Qualtrics to help determine a population to be served by our upcoming video tele-mental health program. Stay tuned for the results.
For this project, we defined The Greater Northridge Community as a Catchment Area, bound by Freeway SR-118 on the North, I-405 on the East, I-101 on the South, and Topanga Canyon Blvd on the West.