The valleys, canyons and desert north of the mountains
A Psychiatrist for North Los Angeles County, From Acton to Gorman
Two county service areas, three valleys and a ring of rural communities. Psychiatric care by video, with a page for each valley.
Video first, office if you like
2,504,183
people in the four Census subdivisions that cover the three northern valleys
2
county mental health service areas, numbers 1 and 2, cover the north
1 hr 43 min
by car from the Acton Agua Dulce Library, at 7.41am on a Monday
61.8%
of working-age adults across those four subdivisions hold commercial coverage
In short
Psychiatric care for the north end of the county
We serve North Los Angeles County mostly by secure video: psychiatric evaluation, diagnosis and medication management with the same clinician our Long Beach patients see. The county's Service Areas 1 and 2 cover the Antelope, Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys, and the rural communities between them, far from our office in Long Beach.
- 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.
Get directions →Where
Three valleys, and the communities between them
How North Los Angeles County is defined
The county Department of Mental Health names its Service Area 1 the Antelope Valley and its Service Area 2 the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys.
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Service Area 1's list names the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale and, as communities, Acton, Agua Dulce, Gorman, Lake Los Angeles and Llano among others.
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None of Acton, Agua Dulce, Gorman, Lake Los Angeles or Llano appears on the county's own list of its cities.
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Agua Dulce appears again on Service Area 2's list, which also names Castaic-Val Verde, Bouquet Canyon and Mint Canyon.
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In the Census geocoder, the Acton Agua Dulce Library falls in the Acton census-designated place inside the South Antelope Valley subdivision, and the Lake Los Angeles Library in the Lake Los Angeles place inside the North Antelope Valley subdivision.
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The county's Santa Clarita Valley Area Plan also lists Agua Dulce among its unincorporated communities, with Bouquet Canyon, Castaic, San Francisquito Canyon, Val Verde and Stevenson Ranch.
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Other places we hear from
Acton and Agua Dulce
Canyon communities off the 14, between the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys.
Lake Los Angeles and Llano
High desert communities spread out east of Palmdale.
Gorman
Up the 5 in the far north of the county, named on Service Area 1's list.
Castaic and Val Verde
North of Santa Clarita on the 5, listed together in Service Area 2.
Bouquet and Mint canyons
Rural canyon roads running north from the Santa Clarita Valley.
The care
What a psychiatric provider does on a video visit
This is a psychiatric practice. We diagnose, we manage medication, and we keep seeing you so the plan keeps fitting your life. We do not run therapy groups or weekly talk therapy.
Psychiatry Services
Comprehensive psychiatric care, including diagnosis, treatment planning, and ongoing management led by a board-certified provider.
Medication Management
Careful selection, 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.
The first appointment
Plan on about an hour. We ask what brought you in, what has and has not helped before, your health and current medications, and what you would like to feel different. You leave with a working diagnosis where one is clear, a plan, and the next visit already on the calendar.
Follow-ups are shorter. They come every few weeks while a plan settles and spread out once it holds, and any medication change is made one step at a time so its effect stays readable.
Video is the whole visit
A video appointment is a full psychiatric visit, not a lesser version. Evaluation, diagnosis and medication follow-up all happen on screen, from anywhere in California.
New patients see Irine Achuamang, a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner. Dr. Cho provides collaborating physician oversight.
Paying for care
Insurance across the north county
We are in network with 19 commercial carriers, including Aetna, Anthem, Beacon Health Options, Carelon, Cigna and others, and you can check your own plan below before you book. TRICARE and TriWest are on that list, 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.
Coverage across North Los Angeles County
Across the San Fernando Valley, Newhall and two Antelope Valley Census subdivisions together, 61.8 percent of adults aged 19 to 64 hold commercial coverage, 21.2 percent rely on Medi-Cal or another means-tested program alone and 9.8 percent are uninsured.
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Commercial coverage reaches 74.2 percent of working-age adults in the Newhall subdivision and 61.1 percent in the San Fernando Valley subdivision, against 56.5 percent across the two Antelope Valley subdivisions.
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Among working-age adults, 66.4 percent in the Acton census-designated place carry commercial coverage against 45.8 percent in Lake Los Angeles, where 32.0 percent rely on Medi-Cal alone.
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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? Leave your name, phone number and email, 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.
Where the north county begins
People draw North Los Angeles County in different ways, so we use the county’s own mental health map. Its Department of Mental Health splits the north into two service areas: Service Area 1 for the Antelope Valley, and Service Area 2 for the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys. Between and around those valleys sit communities that belong to no city at all, such as Acton, Agua Dulce, Gorman and Lake Los Angeles. Agua Dulce appears on both service area lists, which says a lot about how the north county blurs together.
Each of the three valleys has its own page here, with drive times and coverage figures for that valley. This page is the overview, and it is the page for the canyon and desert towns that the valley pages leave out.
Canyon towns that belong to two maps
Some north county communities sit on more than one map at once. Agua Dulce is named in both county mental health service areas, and it appears again in the county’s planning document for the Santa Clarita Valley, beside Bouquet Canyon, San Francisquito Canyon and Castaic. Acton sits in a Census subdivision named for the Antelope Valley, though it lies off the 14 between the two valleys. If you live in one of these places, read whichever valley page feels closest, or simply use this one; the care is the same either way.
Long roads, so we start on screen
Our office is on Long Beach Boulevard, near the harbor end of the county. In a Monday sample at 7.41am, Google sent the trip from the Acton Agua Dulce Library over the Angeles Forest Highway and put it at about 1 hour 43 minutes, and the trip from the Lake Los Angeles Library at about 2 hours 17 minutes by the 14 and the 405. For regular psychiatric care that is too far to ask anyone to travel every few weeks, so we see the north county by video first. The clinician, the length of the appointment and the care itself are the same as in Long Beach.
Insurance looks different valley to valley
Commercial coverage runs high in the Santa Clarita Valley, in between in the San Fernando Valley, and lower in the Antelope Valley, where more working-age adults rely on Medi-Cal alone. Across all three valleys together, a little more than three in five carry a commercial plan. Use the coverage check on this page before you book. Medi-Cal members should know that we do not currently take Medi-Cal managed care. The county handbook sends Medi-Cal specialty mental health services through the county’s own mental health plan, and we stay open to Medi-Cal members as a self-pay practice with a sliding scale.
Two desert towns, two coverage pictures
Acton and Lake Los Angeles are both unincorporated high desert communities, yet their coverage looks very different. In Acton about two in three working-age adults carry a commercial plan. In Lake Los Angeles fewer than half do, and close to a third rely on Medi-Cal alone. So from Acton the first call may well be to us, while from Lake Los Angeles it may be the county help line. Either way, we will tell you honestly which door fits.
A word about rural connections
Census figures put broadband in more than nine in ten north county homes. Out on a ranch road, signal can still be patchy. A phone with a good mobile signal, or a quiet spot in town with a better connection, keeps a visit on track. If you are unsure, tell us when you book.
Help between appointments
For anything urgent, call or text 988, or call the county help line at any hour. In an emergency, call 911.
Getting care
Drives measured from Acton and Lake Los Angeles
Drive times are Google's, sampled once at the hour each note names, in that hour's traffic. Peaks that were not sampled will run longer.
Seeing us by video
Across the same four subdivisions, 94.1 percent of households have broadband of some kind and 4.4 percent have no internet access at home.
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The Board of Registered Nursing describes a nurse practitioner as an advanced practice registered nurse with added skills in physical diagnosis, psycho-social assessment and managing health needs.
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Driving to the office
From Acton Agua Dulce Library at 33792 Crown Valley Rd, Google's recommended route ran 71.8 miles via Angeles Forest Hwy and took about 1 hour 43 minutes at 7.41am Pacific on Monday 26 October 2026, in the morning peak. Google's note on that route read "Fastest route now, avoids slowdowns". Late-morning and evening traffic were not sampled.
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From Lake Los Angeles Library at 16921 E Avenue O, Google's recommended route ran 98.3 miles via CA-14 S and I-405 S and took about 2 hours 17 minutes at 7.41am Pacific on Monday 26 October 2026, in the morning peak. Late-morning and evening traffic were not sampled.
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Related
Further reading before a north county visit
Public resources
County lines that cover the north
Listed because they are useful. We have no referral arrangement with any of them.
Los Angeles County's help line at (800) 854-7771 answers 24 hours a day for the north county as it does for the rest of the county.
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California Health and Human Services lists CalHOPE at 1-833-317-4673 for support by phone or chat.
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The county's member handbook page explains that Medi-Cal behavioral health services come through the county mental health plan for specialty mental health services.
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The 988 Lifeline can be reached by call, text or chat, day or night.
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North county questions
Which page should I read, this one or my valley's?
If you live in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita or Antelope valley, that valley's page has the local detail. This page is for the north county as a whole, and for the canyon and desert communities that sit between the three.
How far is Long Beach from Acton or Lake Los Angeles?
In our Monday 7.41am sample, the Acton Agua Dulce Library was about 1 hour 43 minutes from our office and the Lake Los Angeles Library about 2 hours 17 minutes, in morning-peak traffic.
Who will I see?
New patients see Irine Achuamang, a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner, for the first evaluation and the follow-ups after it, on video or in the office.
Do you see people from Gorman?
Yes, by video. Gorman is on the county's Service Area 1 list, and from that far north a video visit is the practical way to keep regular appointments.
Is a video visit enough for a first psychiatric evaluation?
In most cases it is. The evaluation is a long conversation about your history, symptoms and goals, and it works well on a screen. If anything in your situation needs an in-person step, we will tell you.
Does it matter which county service area I live in?
Not to us; we see the whole north county the same way. The county itself groups its mental health services by area, with Service Area 1 for the Antelope Valley and Service Area 2 for the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.
Distance is the easy part to solve
Pick a time online, and we will phone to confirm it. Join the first visit from home, the ranch office or anywhere private.