YOUNGSTOWN Counseling center attains milestone, 50th anniversary

Parkview Counseling serves more than 1,800 adults each year.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Parkview Counseling Center will celebrate its 50th anniversary Wednesday with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. for founders, community leaders and former board members at the center, 611 Belmont Ave.
On Thursday, the board of trustees will be host to a luncheon for the current staff. The celebration coincides with May as Mental Health Month.
The counseling center was founded in January 1951 by the Junior League of Youngstown as the Child Guidance Center. In 1954, it merged with the Adult Mental Health Clinic to become the Child and Adult Mental Health Center on Covington Street.
When the center changed focus to serve adults, the name was changed to Parkview Counseling Center. The Belmont Avenue facility was built in 1994, where an in-patient crisis residential unit was added in 1995, and a satellite office opened in Sebring in 2000.
Parkview has a staff of about 80 and an annual operating budget of $4.2 million, and serves more than 1,800 clients annually. Thomas Racich, who has been with the agency since 1977, is executive director.
Parkview is a contract agency of the Mahoning County Mental Health Board and Mahoning County Alcohol and Drug Addictions Board, and is certified by the Ohio Department of Mental Health, Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services and Medicare.