A Psychiatrist in the Gateway Cities, Close to Home

We are a Gateway city practice

The Gateway Cities are the 27 cities of southeast Los Angeles County that share a council of governments, from Whittier and Montebello in the north to Long Beach on the coast. Long Beach is a member, so our office on Long Beach Boulevard sits inside the Gateway Cities rather than looking in from outside. The council even counts the Port of Long Beach and Avalon, out on Santa Catalina Island, among its members.

For most of the area that means the office is a real option, not a theory. The city pages linked from this one carry measured drives of their own. Here we measured four more Gateway cities: Artesia, Hawaiian Gardens, Cudahy and Commerce. At 7.40am on a Monday, in the morning peak, Hawaiian Gardens City Hall was about 23 minutes away along Carson Street and Artesia City Hall about 25 minutes by Del Amo Boulevard. The two cities up the 710, Cudahy and Commerce, took about 33 and 37 minutes.

Seven cities without a page of their own

Seven Gateway cities have no page of their own here: Artesia, Avalon, Commerce, Cudahy, Hawaiian Gardens, Industry and Vernon. Taken together, fewer than half of their working-age adults carry commercial coverage and close to a third rely on Medi-Cal alone, though Artesia, at about six in ten, sits well above that. Across all 27 cities, commercial coverage is closer to three in five. The Census subdivisions tell the same story at a larger scale: about six in ten working-age adults carry commercial coverage in the Downey-Norwalk subdivision, about half in the Compton subdivision, and about four in ten in South Gate and East Los Angeles.

We say this because it changes what we can offer. We bill commercial plans and we offer self-pay with a sliding scale. We do not currently take Medi-Cal managed care. For a Medi-Cal member, the county’s handbook sets out how specialty mental health services come through the county mental health plan, and the county help line answers at any hour.

Two of our measured cities, side by side

Cudahy and Artesia are two of those seven, each under 35 minutes from our door in the Monday sample, and their coverage differs sharply. In Cudahy fewer than a third of working-age adults carry commercial coverage, and more than four in ten rely on Medi-Cal alone. In Artesia about six in ten carry a commercial plan. Same council, same county, very different first calls.

The county’s map is not the council’s map

The county Department of Mental Health draws its own lines. Most Gateway cities sit in its Service Area 7, but Compton, Lynwood and Paramount sit in Service Area 6, and Long Beach in Service Area 8. If you call the county help line, it helps to know which service area you live in.

Avalon, the Gateway city across the water

Avalon is a Gateway member you cannot drive to. It sits on Santa Catalina Island, and the county places the island in the same mental health service area as Long Beach. For someone in Avalon, a follow-up on the mainland means a boat crossing each way. A video follow-up from home takes half an hour. If you live on the island, video is the way we would suggest starting, with the office there for the days you are already on the mainland.

When the drive is not the problem

Even close by, some weeks the drive is too much: a double shift, no car that day, kids home sick. That is what the video option is for. The appointment is the same, and keeping it matters more than where you sit for it.