Norwalk, California
Mental Health Care for Norwalk
Half an hour by freeway and the longest route is the quickest. Psychiatric evaluation and medication management for Norwalk, in person or by video.
In short
Mental health services for Norwalk
Norwalk is fifteen to eighteen miles from our psychiatric office, about half an hour by freeway, and six in ten working-age residents hold commercial insurance we contract with. We provide psychiatric evaluation, diagnosis and medication management, and for Norwalk we suggest a first visit in person and routine follow-ups by secure video.
- Our office
- 3646 Long Beach Blvd # 205, Long Beach, CA 90807
- Hours
- Mon–Fri · 8 AM–6 PM (Pacific)
- Phone
- (818) 286-3862
Telehealth available across California, with new locations coming to Northern California.
What we do
Psychiatric care for Norwalk patients
We are a psychiatric practice, not a therapy group and not a clinic directory. That means diagnosis, medication, and someone who keeps track of how you are actually doing over time.
Psychiatry Services
Comprehensive psychiatric care — diagnosis, treatment planning, and ongoing management led by a board-certified provider.
Medication Management
Careful prescribing, monitoring, and adjustment of psychiatric medications to maximize benefit and minimize side effects.
Psychiatric Evaluation
A thorough first assessment to understand your history and symptoms and build an accurate diagnosis and plan.
What a first visit looks like
A full psychiatric evaluation runs about an hour. We go through what brought you in, your history, what you have tried before and how it went, physical health and medications, and what you want to be different. You leave with a working diagnosis where one is clear, a plan, and a follow-up booked — not a referral to somewhere else.
Follow-ups are shorter, usually every few weeks at first and further apart once things are steady. Medication changes are made deliberately, one at a time, so it stays possible to tell what is working.
In person or by video, from Norwalk
Both are real options and the clinical care is the same. Video visits are secure and available anywhere in California, which for most people makes the first appointment in person and the routine follow-ups from home or on a work break.
If getting here is the thing standing between you and treatment, take the video visit rather than skipping the care. That is what it is for.
Care is provided by our psychiatric team — Irine Achuamang, MSN, PMHNP-BC and Austina Cho, MD.
Paying for care
Most Norwalk plans are ones we bill
Usually, yes. We are in network with 19 commercial carriers, including Aetna, Anthem, Beacon Health Options, Carelon, Cigna and others — you can check your own plan below before booking anything. That list includes TRICARE and TriWest, so service members, veterans and military families are billed like anyone else here.
We do not currently take Medi-Cal managed care. If that is your coverage, we are a self-pay option rather than a covered visit, and it is better to know that now than at the front desk. Self-pay is $250 for a 60-minute initial psychiatric evaluation and $150 for a 30-minute follow-up visit, and there is a sliding scale — please ask.
What that looks like in Norwalk
Local coverage data, so you can see roughly where you fall before you call:
- Among Norwalk adults aged 19 to 64, 54.6 percent hold employer-based coverage only and 5.6 percent buy their own plan, putting 60.2 percent on commercial insurance, six in ten. source
- In the same age band 19.9 percent of Norwalk residents rely on Medi-Cal or another means-tested public program and 12.5 percent are uninsured. source
- Norwalk has a population of 99,789 and a median household income of $100,085. source
In-network with your insurance
We're in-network with most major plans, so care stays affordable. Not sure about yours? Verify your coverage in about a minute — or we'll gladly check it for you.
No card to hand? Just leave your name and number — tick “look it up for me” and we'll do the checking. Self-pay & sliding-scale options are also available.
Plans we accept
Paying out of pocket?
Self-pay ratesClear, upfront self-pay rates — no surprises, no fine print. You’ll know the cost before your first visit.
Initial psychiatric evaluation
$250/ 1 hour
Follow-up visit
$150/ 30 min
Sliding-scale options are available — just ask.
About visiting us from Norwalk
Norwalk is the exception in this part of the county, and the exception runs in your favour. Six in ten working-age residents, 60.2 percent, hold commercial insurance, and those are the plans we contract with. Medi-Cal covers 19.9 percent and 12.5 percent are uninsured. We do not currently bill Medi-Cal managed care, and we say that on every one of these pages, but in Norwalk it applies to one working-age adult in five rather than three in ten. For most readers here the insurance conversation will be short. The real obstacle is the distance.
We are a psychiatric practice rather than a counselling service, which matters if you arrived here searching for mental health services in general. What we provide is a proper evaluation that ends in a working diagnosis, medication chosen and then actually monitored, and follow-up that changes course when something is not working. We do not provide weekly therapy. Where therapy is the right answer, or the missing half of the answer, we will say so.
Now the distance, stated plainly. From Norwalk City Hall on Norwalk Boulevard we are between fifteen and eighteen miles away depending on the road, and every option came in at about half an hour when we checked at three on a weekday afternoon. The quickest was also the longest: 17.7 miles down the 605 and up the 405, about 30 minutes, which Google labelled the fastest route despite the usual traffic. The 91 is 15.2 miles and about 31 minutes. The 710 is 15.1 miles and about 32. Navigating by mileage picks a slower road. The peaks were not sampled and will be worse.
Norwalk has two rail stations and neither of them comes to Long Beach. Norwalk Station is the eastern end of Metro’s C Line and it is inside the city. The Metrolink station on Imperial Highway is a commuter rail stop, and Metrolink does not run to Long Beach at all. To reach us by train you would ride the C Line west to Willowbrook, change to the A Line south, and finish on Long Beach Transit’s Route 51 down the boulevard from Artesia Station. Metro’s 111, 115 and 125 buses all end at Norwalk Station, so the station is easy to reach and the rest of the trip is the hard part. For most Norwalk patients the honest choice is the drive or a video visit.
So here is the pattern we would suggest. Make the first appointment in person if you can. An hour face to face is a better foundation for a diagnosis than an hour on a screen, and once is manageable. Then do the routine reviews by secure video from home, or from a parked car on a break. Thirty-five miles of round trip to confirm a dose is working is a poor use of a weekday, and the clinical content of the review is the same either way. If the drive is the thing between you and treatment, take the video visit rather than skipping the care.
The city’s name for itself is older than the city. In 1869 Atwood Sproul bought 463 acres here on behalf of his brother, at eleven dollars an acre, in an area known as Corazon de los Valles, the heart of the valleys. Norwalk did not incorporate until August 1957, and the Hargitt House, built in 1891 by the D.D. Johnston family and now the city’s nationally registered landmark, has been standing through all of it. We mention it because Norwalk is a place that keeps things, and the conditions people bring us from here tend to be kept things too: worry that has run for years without a name, intrusive thoughts nobody has said are treatable, and attention problems carried since school. None of them improves by being carried longer.
In crisis, 988 answers by call or text at any hour. The county mental health line is (800) 854-7771, and Norwalk falls within the county’s Service Area 7.
Getting here
Travelling from Norwalk
Distances and times below are Google's, timed on a weekday at the hour each route note states, in the traffic it labels usual for that route. Allow longer at the peaks each note says were not sampled.
By car
From Norwalk City Hall on Norwalk Boulevard the quickest route is the longest, 17.7 miles and about 30 minutes down the 605 and up the 405, timed at three on a weekday afternoon when Google called it the fastest route despite the usual traffic. Morning and evening peaks were not sampled.
google.comchecked
The two shorter roads were slower in the same afternoon sample, the 91 at 15.2 miles and about 31 minutes, and the 710 at 15.1 miles and about 32 minutes.
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By transit
Norwalk Station, the eastern end of Metro's C Line, sits inside Norwalk, and Metro's 111, 115 and 125 buses all terminate there. Reaching Long Beach by rail means the C Line west to Willowbrook and the A Line south, two trains.
gitlab.comchecked
Metrolink's Norwalk and Santa Fe Springs station on Imperial Highway is also inside the city, and Metrolink does not run to Long Beach.
metrolinktrains.comchecked
Long Beach Transit's network is built around Long Beach rather than Norwalk. Its Routes 101, 103 and 104 reach Norwalk Boulevard, but no Long Beach Transit route is named for the city.
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Local
Other resources in Norwalk
These are listed because they are useful. We have no referral arrangement with any of them.
Norwalk is one of the communities served by Service Area 7 of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.
dmh.lacounty.govchecked
The county's mental health help line answers at (800) 854-7771 every hour of every day and can arrange service referrals or a crisis assessment.
dmh.lacounty.govchecked
Dialing or texting 988 connects to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline nationwide.
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Related
Conditions worth reading about first
Frequently asked questions
Is Norwalk too far for in-person care?
Not for the first visit. Half an hour once, for an hour face to face, is a good foundation for a diagnosis. It is too far to repeat every few weeks for a fifteen-minute review, which is why we suggest routine follow-ups by secure video. The clinical content of a review is the same on a screen as in the room.
Can I get to you by train from Norwalk Station?
Technically. Norwalk Station is the eastern end of the C Line and it is inside the city. You would ride west to Willowbrook, change to the A Line south, and finish on Long Beach Transit's Route 51 down Long Beach Boulevard from Artesia Station. Two trains and a bus is a long afternoon, so most Norwalk patients drive or use video.
Which freeway should I take?
The 605 to the 405, even though it is the longest at 17.7 miles. In our weekday afternoon sample it was the quickest at about 30 minutes, while the shorter 91 and 710 routes each took a minute or two longer. Norwalk is a place where mileage misleads. Trust the time.
Do you take the plans people in Norwalk have?
Mostly. Six in ten working-age residents hold commercial insurance, and those are the plans we contract with, so for most readers here the coverage conversation is short. We do not currently bill Medi-Cal managed care, which covers about one in five, and if that is your plan we are a self-pay option with a sliding scale rather than a covered visit.
Do you offer counselling as well as medication?
No. We are a psychiatric practice, which means evaluation, diagnosis and medication managed over time. If counselling or therapy is what your situation needs, or the other half of what it needs, we will say so plainly at the first visit rather than keep you on a plan that is missing a piece.
Are intrusive thoughts something a psychiatrist treats?
Yes. Unwanted thoughts that keep returning, often with rituals to make them stop, are the core of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and it responds to treatment. Many people carry it for years because they assume the thoughts say something about them. They do not. It is a condition, it has a name, and it is worth an evaluation.
Start on video, from Norwalk
Request a time online and choose video or in person. A real person confirms it either way.