CMHS�s Program for Survivors of Torture and Severe Trauma (PSTT) was officially established in 1998 to address the consequences of human rights abuses. PSTT�s mission is to assist survivors of politically-motivated torture by providing a comprehensive range of services to address the complex results of their torture.

CMHS�s multicultural mental health treatment and evaluation services address the mental health needs of low-income, English-limited immigrant and refugee individuals and families for whom existing services are inaccessible due to language and cultural barriers.

CMHS believes that every member of a family afflicted by domestic violence is a victim and that a holistic approach to treatment and prevention offers the greatest chance for success. Efforts are focused on the entire family, when appropriate, as well as the community beyond.

CMHS�s multilingual information and referral line was implemented to extend the benefits of CMHS�s extensive knowledge of refugee and immigrant populations, its familiarity with community resources throughout Northern Virginia, and its more than 30 languages on staff to the newcomer population in Northern Virginia.

For the past eleven years, CMHS has offered the only housing services project in Fairfax County to focus specifically on assisting cultural and language minority families. More recently, in an effort to alleviate the existing shortage in affordable housing stock, CMHS has added transitional housing services to the program to provide safe housing to single women, particularly victims of domestic violence.

For over 10 years, CMHS has offered clinical training programs for emerging professionals in psychology, social work, and counseling. Our training programs are model programs for bulding the cultural competence of the U.S. mental health workforce in order to increase access to quality mental health care for critically underserved, culturally and linguistically diverse population.