Teen mental health center allcove, located in Palo Alto’s Midtown, is continuing to offer free mental health and wellness services to local teens since its opening this past summer. 

“We opened on June 25 … and had over 100 youths who visited both centers, with 86 choosing to participate in some kind of service,” Behavioral Health Division Director Rachel Talamantez said. “Considering it was summer, considering the pandemic, we were actually quite pleased to see the response within the first two months.”

There are currently around 75 teens who utilize services like behavioral health, medical care, psychiatry, education or employment support, something Talamantez attributes to word-of-mouth between local teens. 

“There’s the formal outreach that we do: going to different schools or fairs that young people would be at, going to different community locations, but … young person to young person has actually been the strongest referral source, which is really nice to see,” Talamantez said.

Beyond individual services, allcove hosts weekly game nights on Thursdays from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and study lounges on Mondays from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Senior Mental Health Organizer Veronica Robles emphasized the wide variety of reasons students visit the center.

“You can go and you can study, or you can just relax, even if you … [don’t have] a reason to talk to someone,” Robles said.

“There’s the formal outreach that we do: going to different schools or fairs that young people would be at, going to different community locations, but … young person to young person has actually been the strongest referral source, which is really nice to see.”

— Rachel Talamantez, Behavioral Health Division Director

The center plans to continue its mission to destigmatize mental health and foster community through these individual services, events and new projects. 

“I hope that allcove will be a place that people will come to from the standpoint of when there’s a need, but also, when there’s not any,” Talamantez said.