Clinical Care
The Children's Center
The Children's Center at Langley Porter 
is a unique resource to families in the Bay Area and throughout Northern California. We provide assessment and treatment for children and adolescents who come to us with a broad range of mental disorders and behavioral disturbances.
The Center strives to set the standard for excellent mental health care. Within that context, we offer clinical care in programs that also promote excellent training for the next generation of mental health providers and foster research, to ensure continued improvements in care.
We balance general expertise with areas of particular focus. Specialty clinics address major syndromes such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Deficit Disorder (ADHD), Autism, Adolescent Depression, Complex Diagnoses, and Tourette's Disorder. Treatment options include individual and family psychotherapy, cognitive and behavioral therapies, medications, and group therapies, and we continue to introduce new treatment approaches as they emerge. We also offer expert clinical consultation to community care providers to support their efforts to care for especially complicated patients.
The Young Adult and Family Center
Founded by Dr. Kim Norman in 2004, the Young Adult and Family Center (YAFC) is dedicated to innovation in the creation of mental health services, clinical research, health education, outreach and public policy advocacy for the benefit of adolescents and young adults ages 12-24, and their families. The YAFC is among the first academically based psychiatry programs in the nation dedicated to advancing the understanding and care of transitional aged youth.
The Young Adult and Family Center has multiple bases of operations. The YAFC:
• Operates mental health clinics within UCSF’s Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute
• Is embedded in UCSF’s Department of Pediatrics Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine Clinic
• Initiates school based interventions (high school and college) for mental health awareness and suicide prevention
• Pioneers E-therapeutics – using technology (such as interactive web sites, webcam therapies, text messaging, etc) to disseminate health information, promote healthy behavioral change, de-stigmatize mental illness, and make health care more accessible to adolescents young adults and their families.
OUR MISSION
The Young Adult and Family Center at UCSF seeks to de-stigmatize mental illness, and improve the mental health of adolescents, young adults and families in all communities, with a special emphasis on the most vulnerable. We are dedicated to making mental health care available to every adolescent and family in need of services, to training the next generation of health care professionals committed to helping adolescents and their families, and to advancing the knowledge base of best clinical practices.
Our ABCs are:
A – Access. We seek to make quality care accessible to everyone who needs it.
B – Brand. We seek to create a brand recognized by young people, families, pediatricians, teachers, family court judges and other child advocates.
C – Capability. We seek to train the next generation of clinicians and advance the knowledge base of best practices in the field of adolescent and young adult mental health.