OUR HISTORY

The beginnings of Comprehensive Life Resources (formerly Comprehensive Mental Health) date back to 1957 when the Tacoma Psychiatric Clinic was established. In 1965, CLR became one of the first not-for-profit organizations funded by the National Institute of Mental Health under the federal community mental health law. CLR was incorporated in 1971 as its own independent agency.

Throughout the 70s, CLR provided a number of innovative mental health services in addition to outpatient therapy. Programming included clustered apartment living with 24-hour live-in staff for recently discharged Western State Hospital consumers, training and employment programs for seriously mentally ill individuals, and a drop-in community resource center utilizing a clubhouse model. 

The early 80’s saw an increased focus on child and adolescent mental health. Pearl Street Center, a locked residential treatment facility for adolescents, opened in 1983.

In 1991, CLR embarked on an ambitious program in concert with the County’s two other mental health centers to provide alternative residential placements for 55 mentally ill consumers living in nursing homes. Called OBRA, this project successfully helped reintegrate many of these individuals into community living. In 2006, CLR expanded Park Place use to a full 86 beds to offer a community living option for individuals ready to leave Western State Hospital without somewhere to go.

From the late 90s through 2008, CLR added many specialty mental health programs and services working with school districts, local juvenile justice offices and the regional office of the State Division of Child and Family Services. Our foster care programs expanded to include seven contracts and we began co-locating our services throughout the community.

In 2011, CLR took an opportunity to review our past decades of service, to appreciate our accomplishments, to recognize our strengths, and to identify areas for growth. Together with our clients, we chose a new name for our organization, Comprehensive Life Resources, and recommitted to a strengths-oriented and unconditionally accepting treatment approach with clients and staff members working together as a team.

In October of that year, we began offering mental-health assessment, case management, and individual/family counseling at no cost for youth and adults who are unfunded or unable to pay for services. In July of 2013, CLR was able to expand these services through our first grant from the City of Tacoma (1/10th of 1% tax funding). Re-named Life Connections, the program has served thousands of children and adults since it began.

Since 2012, CLR has consistently had therapists embedded in schools across Pierce County to provide additional support for school counselors and staff. Each year we serve more than 500 students.

Throughout 2016 and 2017, we continued to broaden our continuum of services, adding licenses for Supported Employment, Substance Use treatment, and a Pierce County-funded Mobile Intervention and Response Team, MCIRT.

In 2022, Comprehensive Life Resources became the first Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic in the Puget Sound Region. This is a federal designation from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency.