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The Whitman County Mental Health Advisory Board, an organization made up chiefly of volunteers, was first organized about 1965. Its first Mental Health Clinic was established in the old Washington Hotel, on Pullman's Main Street. The staff included a volunteer part-time director and three "moon-lighting" psychologists. In 1966 the Whitman County Mental Health Center added a paid part-time director.

In 1969, Pauli Owens, a social worker, became director, a position she retained until she resigned in 1985 over budgetary problems. Owens' efforts led to a large increase in the number of programs the mental health center offered residents of Whitman County.

When the Washington Hotel was razed in 1971 to make room for construction of new facilities for the Pullman branch of Seafirst National Bank, the Whitman County Mental Health Center moved to North 141 Grand Avenue, on the ground floor of the Cordova Theater building. It remained there until 1978 and then moved to the Wesley Building at NE 340 Maple Street, which Whitman County had purchased from the Simpson United Methodist Church to house a number of county outreach programs. The services offered the Whitman County Mental Health Center include adult day treatment, child and family counseling, and twenty-four hour crisis services. It is financed mostly through state and federal funds, with Whitman county contributing only two to three percent of the annual budget. The center remains at the Maple Street facility.