New Salinas clinic brings culturally rooted mental health care to farmworker families
ALAS, the nonprofit Ayudando Latinos a Soñar, celebrated its Sept. 30 ribbon cutting at 947 Blanco Circle. The clinic targets a gap in early, culturally responsive care for Latino families, backed by seed funding from Kaiser Permanente.
A new mental health clinic focused on Latino and farmworker families has opened in Salinas. The ALAS (Ayudando Latinos a Soñar) clinic at 947 Blanco Circle, Suite B, was celebrated with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Sept. 30 and a welcoming proclamation from Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo.
"This is a momentous day," said Dr. Belinda Hernández-Arriaga, founder and CEO of ALAS, which provides culturally responsive mental health care and wraparound services for Latino and farmworker families.
ALAS is expanding from Half Moon Bay, where practitioners developed their approach through years of work with farmworker communities during COVID-19, wildfires, flooding, and the 2023 mass shooting at two plant nurseries. The organization also built an accordion-based music therapy program, built around an instrument popular in Latin music, to help the community heal.
The Salinas clinic fills a specific gap: early intervention for people with mild to moderate mental health challenges. "On average, Latinos wait 15 years between symptom onset to the first time they interact with mental health care," said Dr. David Martinez, ALAS director of mental health and associate professor at the University of San Francisco. "We know that early intervention when symptoms start developing is going to yield better outcomes long-term."
Martinez said that nationally, about half of Spanish-speaking clients who begin mental health treatment drop out after the first session. "At ALAS, we have seen that over 70% actually remain in treatment for 12 or more sessions," he said.
"The mild to moderate resources are very limited to non-existent, so we're trying to come and fill some of that gap," Martinez said.
The 2,900-square-foot space includes four offices, a conference area, and a room for child and parent psychotherapy, staffed by a four-person team that will grow with community needs. Services begin at no cost through grant funding, including seed funding from Kaiser Permanente, with support from Life Science Cares, the Gilead Foundation, and the Westly Foundation. Partner organizations include the Monterey County Office of Education's Migrant Education Program and Salinas Valley Health.
Over time, ALAS plans to become a Medi-Cal provider and expand beyond individual counseling into group therapy, family therapy, couples counseling, and community education. The organization also aims to bring its Health Equity Express mobile mental health bus to Monterey County, a mobile counseling and resource center that brings therapy, internet access, food, art programs, and referrals directly to farmworker communities.
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