Institutes + Centers
Adler Community Health Services (ACHS), a non-profit clinical training center of Adler University, delivers comprehensive, trauma-informed mental health and substance use prevention and intervention services to our neighbors located in primarily underserved, high-need neighborhoods. Functioning as a third-party provider, ACHS collaborates with local mission-aligned organizations eager to provide or augment services within their communities. Our community-centric approach empowers ACHS to let the community itself shape our role as mental health practitioners and advocates for health equity and health justice.
Care at ACHS is provided free of charge to those accessing its services by master’s and doctoral-level student clinicians, all under the direct supervision of registered and/or licensed clinical faculty. By being deeply embedded in the communities it serves, ACHS not only reduces barriers to care but also improves the quality of services delivered. These immersive workforce training programs give student clinicians invaluable hands-on experience, teaching them the complexities of working in interprofessional community health teams, integrating community strengths into therapeutic practices, and understanding the vital connection between individual well-being, community health, and government policies at various levels.
Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada): Serves people from the adolescent through elder life course in the Vancouver, British Columbia region. The team is comprised of psychology, counselling psychology, and counselling psychology-art therapy professions.
Chicago (Illinois, United States of America): Serves people across the full life course in the Chicago, Illinois region. The team is comprised of psychology, clinical mental health counseling, and couple and family therapy professions.
Click here for the Chicago-based APA-accredited Community Mental Health Internship Program information on the aggregate postdoctoral positions of the previous three intern year cohorts, internship program admission requirements, and internship program financial and benefit support.
Opened in 1972, the Dreikurs Psychological Services Center, named after one of Adler University’s founders, Rudolf Dreikurs, stood as the institution’s first mental health training clinic, situated in its downtown Chicago campus. The clinic offered mental health and substance use outpatient treatment to the public. Academic program faculty supervised graduate students fulfilling their training requirements there. Though most services were provided on campus, the early 1990s saw the center branching out to provide care within the community. Collaborative training programs were established within the Illinois Department of Corrections (at both Dixon Correctional Center and Illinois Youth Center – St. Charles) and St. Leonard’s Ministries. By 2009, a significant 97% of the care had transitioned from the on-campus clinic to community-based locations. This period marked a pivotal shift in the university’s approach and ethos, resonating deeply with Dr. Alfred Adler’s philosophy of the powerful connection between community and individual health.
In 2010, the on-campus clinic transitioned into Adler Community Health Services (ACHS), adopting a new model that focused on reaching underserved communities by embedding services directly within those areas, rather than requiring individuals to come to the clinic. The first branch under this new structure, the Division of Community Health Chicago, evolved from the reorganization of the Dreikurs Psychological Services Center.
By 2013, ACHS was approached to take over the last remaining training program of the Illinois Department of Corrections at the Illinois Youth Center – St. Charles. This led to the creation of the Division of Juvenile Justice Illinois in 2014. Simultaneously, Adler’s Vancouver campus in British Columbia, Canada saw significant growth in its mental health degree programs. To address the demand for high-quality training placements, the Division of Community Health Vancouver was established in 2018.
n 2019, ACHS was informed by the Illinois Department of Corrections that its contract would end due to a sharp decline in youth incarceration rates through successful youth diversion investment by the State of Illinois. In response, the Division of Juvenile Justice Illinois redefined its mission and, in 2020, became the Division of Teen Wellness and Opportunity, shifting its focus to youth empowerment and success.
By 2024, ACHS decided to eliminate the division structure and consolidate its efforts into a single workforce training center, offering training programs in both Chicago and Vancouver.
Today, ACHS includes 12 full-time clinical positions, one half-time clinical position, and 1 psychology postdoctoral resident. Our workforce training programs annual provide up to 13 psychology doctoral internship, 12 psychology doctoral externship, 6 master of counselling psychology externship, and 4 master of couple and family therapy externship placements. Annually, this dynamic team provides an average of 12,000 hours of direct clinical services and 8,000 hours of clinical support and consultation to our community partner organizations including 4,000 hours of direct supervision to our trainees.
ACHS offers our community partner agencies a full suite of trauma-informed services that can be provided both in-person and through telehealth:
ACHS does not profit from its clinical training partnerships. ACHS charges a per-day-of-service fee versus a fee-for-service model. This allows partners access to the broad menu of clinical services for one set per-day fee versus a traditional per-use charge for each service. This model allows our community partner sites to flexibly utilize different services as the demands within their community population change.
As practitioners focused on health equity and health justice, ACHS is committed to seeking alternative funding in the form of government and foundation grants, and individual and/or corporate donations. ACHS, in partnership with Adler University’s Office of Institutional Advancement, explores fundraising opportunities that will pay for the contract fees of our community partner sites. If ACHS secures funding that covers a partner’s contract fee, ACHS adjusts the contract terms to decrease or eliminate the unpaid portion of the contract due from the partner that the new funding now covers. ACHS asks our partners to submit a letter to us as to how the partner reinvested the funds into their community/agency that they would have paid ACHS for services. ACHS submits this letter to the funder to demonstrate the additional impact their gift provided to our community partner site.
The Chicago Behavioral Health Workforce Training Programs
reside within Adler Community Health Services (ACHS), a center of Adler University. The Chicago Behavioral Health Workforce Training Programs provide an extensive suite of behavioral health services to communities in need. Services are primarily provided by a multidisciplinary team of master- and doctoral-level graduate students supervised by licensed clinical faculty. The Chicago Behavioral Health Workforce Training Programs serve a diverse range of people throughout the Chicagoland region at the following agencies: City Year Chicago, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, St. Leonard’s Ministries, and Thresholds.
Click here for Community Mental Health Internship Program information on the aggregate postdoctoral positions of the previous three intern year cohorts, internship program admission requirements, and internship program financial and benefit support.
Please click the links below for more information on each of our training programs.
Adler Community Health Services’ Chicago Behavioral Health Workforce Training Programs have been a member of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) since 2004. Our APPIC member number is 1254.
The Community Mental Health Internship Program at Adler Community Health Services is accredited by the American Psychological Association. The Commission on Accreditation of the APA can be contacted at:
Commission on Accreditation
Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 First St. NE
Washington, DC 20002-4242
(202) 336-5979
[email protected]
The Vancouver Behavioural Health Workforce Training Programs reside within Adler Community Health Services (ACHS), a centre of Adler University. The Vancouver Behavioural Health Workforce Training Programs provide an extensive suite of behavioural health services to communities-in-need. Services are primarily provided by a multidisciplinary team of master- and doctoral-level graduate students supervised by registered clinical faculty. The Vancouver Behavioural Health Workforce Training Programs serve a diverse range of people throughout the Vancouver region at the following agencies: Vancouver Community College, RISE Community Health Centre, Providence Health Care, LaSalle College Vancouver, Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, Columbia College, and Squamish Nation.
Please click the links below for more information on each of our training programs.
The Doctoral Psychology Internship in Clinical Psychology program is applying for APPIC membership in the 2024-2025 academic year.
The Doctoral Psychology Internship in Clinical Psychology is an unaccredited internship program. The program is actively in the process of preparing a self-study for accreditation consideration with the Canadian Psychological Association.
Support ACHS in increasing access to mental health services for high-need patients through its community-embedded service model.
Recognizing the pressing needs of health care workers, Providence Health Care is prioritizing mental health services for its employees through an innovative partnership with Adler University to provide support.
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Student interns from Adler Community Health Services (ACHS) join an interdisciplinary team of providers — including the chief medical officer, chief clinical officer, care coordinators, nurses, education specialists, and therapists — to provide evidence-based, value-driven, and trauma-informed care at the ICC.
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