The Gooden Center was established in 1962 by five members of Alcoholics Anonymous and Episcopal Bishop, Robert Gooden. On a quiet tree-lined street in a historic section of Pasadena, California, this original group created a unique safe haven where people could escape the ravages alcoholism and drug addiction and begin putting their lives back together again. Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment. The Gooden Center provides residential, outpatient, and transitional living treatment to individuals with psychiatric disorders and/or substance abuse issues. Our primary focus is on mental health, but we also offer a full continuum of specialized care for substance abuse treatment. We can typically take the dual-diagnosis patients that other programs are not licensed to or not able to treat because of the severity of the underlying mental health issues.