Mental health services for low-income individuals across LOS angeles - children's institute (CII) will address the needs of individuals with serious emotional disturbance (SED), serious mental illness…

Mental health services for low-income individuals across LOS angeles - children's institute (CII) will address the needs of individuals with serious emotional disturbance (SED), serious mental illness (SMI), and/or CO-occurring disorder (COD) in high-risk, under-resourced communities across LOS angeles. CII will provide trauma-informed, evidence-based clinical services, including screening, assessment, diagnosis, service planning, and evidence-based practices. CII will also provide community training on referral pathways. The primary target population will be low-income individuals who are uninsured/not eligible for medicaid, particularly those who have been underserved during the covid-19 pandemic. CII will leverage existing partnerships with schools in low-income, high-risk regions of LOS angeles to engage students and their families in clinical services. CII will build on existing referral pathways to expedite engagement and enrollment of individuals in mental health services. Further, CII will provide mental health awareness training for school mental health professionals and the related workforce. This training will focus on identifying potential mental health issues and referrals procedures to facilitate access to care for individuals whose mental health has been impacted by the pandemic, including individuals who have new symptoms and individuals whose symptoms have been exacerbated by the trauma of the pandemic. CII will utilize two strategies to achieve our goals: comprehensive clinical services for individuals (including psychosocial rehabilitation and case management) and widespread community training on referral pathways and signs to trigger mental health referrals. CII will also reinforce our telehealth infrastructure to minimize potential barriers to clinical treatment. The project's primary goal is to address the needs of individuals with SED, SMI, and COD by providing trauma-informed, evidence-based mental health services. This will be achieved through four objectives: 1) at least 150 identified individuals with SED, SEI, or COD will receive trauma-informed, evidence-based mental health services; 2) of the individuals treated for mental health issues, 80% will show symptom reduction; 3) at least 150 individuals will be referred from community partners annually, screened, and linked to mental health services; 4) 100% of referred individuals will have access to telehealth services as needed to minimize barriers to care. A secondary goal for the project is to provide resources and supports to address the mental health needs of community mental health center staff. This will be achieved through the following two objectives: 1) 150 chmc staff will receive training and resources to address their mental health needs, such as vicarious trauma training and wellness groups; 2) 100% of cmhc staff will have the equipment and training to provide telehealth services. Over the grant term, this project will provide trauma-informed, evidence-based clinical services to at least 300 individuals and wellness resources and training to combat vicarious trauma to 150 mental health professionals.