Our History

Compass Behavioral Health Care was founded in 1972 as the Local Alcoholism Reception Center (LARC), an agency of the City of South Tucson.

Located in a former bread warehouse, LARC began as a grassroots effort to provide an alternative to jail for individuals demonstrating public intoxication.  As LARC expanded into a professional treatment organization called Gateway, it merged with Tucson Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence in 1997 to become Compass Behavioral Health Care.

In October 1997 Gateway LARC, Inc. and the Tucson Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. (TCADD) merged to form Compass Behavioral Health Care, Inc., (CBHC) creating Tucson Arizona’s largest community-based alcoholism and drug abuse prevention and treatment organization.  Gateway LARC and TCADD had been two of Southern Arizona’s oldest and most respected non-profit organizations. Both entities were active not-for profit community-based organizations established in the late 1960’s and were well-known and respected for their comprehensive prevention and treatment services for substance abuse and related disorders. 

The purpose of the merger was to create a more effective and efficient company to provide substance abuse prevention and social services for the growing need in Tucson and Pima County, Arizona. Compass Behavioral Health Care has since streamlined services to provide innovative and efficient benefits to its customers and has combined duplicative service networks into a single fully-integrated organization. CBHC now serves more than 5,000 people annually with a continuum of care that includes inpatient detoxification, substance abuse prevention services, services for the seriously mentally ill, residential and outpatient treatment, transitional and permanent housing, youth and family programs, outreach and education, and other services geared toward a healthier and more self-sufficient life.

Compass Behavioral Health Care has grown tremendously, to a full service agency providing inpatient detoxification services, residential and outpatient addiction treatment programs, transitional housing, prevention and education services.

Compass Behavioral Health Care is proud of the relationships it has developed over the years with organizations such as Community Partnership of Southern Arizona (the Regional Behavioral Health Authority), La Frontera Center, CODAC Behavioral Services, Inc, COPE Community Services, and Tucson Planning Council for the Homeless, and countless others.  Compass also has relationships with the Tohono O’Odham Nation, Pascua Yaqui Nation, Indian Health Services, the State of Arizona, the United States Substance Abuse and Health Services Administration, Tucson Police Department and the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. 

As we move into our fifth decade of service to the community, Compass Behavioral Health Care intends to maintain our position as a leader in providing evidence-based services to individuals and families living with addictive disease and its consequences.

Compass Behavioral Health Care | 2475 N. Jackrabbit Ave. Tucson, AZ 85745 | (520) 882-5608 | infochc@compasshc.org