Dickinson Mental Health Center opened its doors in 1958 as the Ridgway Area Psychiatric Center becoming the first rural outpatient psychiatric facility in Pennsylvania. Originally, the "Center" had a single purpose of outpatient clinical assessment and treatment of psychiatric disorders, but over the past 50 years has greatly expanded the number of programs and services it offers covering the areas of Elk, Cameron, Potter and McKean counties. Today, the Center is a complex organization of more than two dozen units and licensed programs, focusing on children's prevention and services to individuals with mental health, as well as mental retardation related needs.

The original Ridgway Area Psychiatric Center was renamed Dickinson Mental Health Center in 1982, by the Board of Governors, in honor and memory of its late founder, Dr. Robert J. Dickinson.