A prevention-centered collaboration to support LA County residents.

A high impact partnership, between the LA County Department of Mental Health and UCLA, designed to strengthen communities and improve the wellbeing of Los Angeles County residents and greater society by providing a holistic foundation for addressing inequities and advancing wellbeing for all.

GOALS

Strengthen communities

• Prevent the impact of trauma and promote the resilience of individuals and communities

Reengineer systems

• Engage and assist vulnerable residents by improving broken, inequitable systems

Revitalize policy

• Build equity into societal structures through policy

PROGRAMS

Each program is developed to deepen an understanding of the ways in which racial inequities have impacted our communities and the services we provide to them.

Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA

UCLA Prevention Center of Excellence
Applying innovation and implementation best practices to address the County’s most pressing needs

The UCLA Prevention Center of Excellence (COE) is a hub for training and implementation across the county. By focusing on the programs and services identified by DMH leadership, the COE is able to meet the most pressing needs of the county workforce. A team of expert trainers, research and evaluation professionals, and UCLA faculty and staff support the COE’s work. This allows the COE to bring a multidisciplinary approach that ensures resources and initiatives are culturally relevant and locally useable by the county workforce.

DMH + UCLA Public Mental Health Partnership
Building capacity and consistency in county services for individuals experiencing homelessness

The Public Mental Health Partnership (PMHP) focuses on training and technical assistance for the Full Service Partnership (FSP) and HOME Teams run by DMH. Since inception, the PMHP has created a large library of virtual trainings and resources that are now organized and housed on the Wellbeing for LA Learning Center website. These resources, while customized to meet the needs of the FSP and HOME Teams individually, can be applied across programs to help build key skills and promote best practices for supporting individuals experiencing homelessness.

UCLA Hispanic Neuropsychiatric Center of Excellence
Reducing mental health stigma using a culturally relevant and community focused approach

The Hispanic Neuroscience Center of Excellence (HNCE) has two broad foci: 1) work with Promotores de Salud and 2) build relationships with faith- and community-based organizations (FBO/CBO). For both groups, the Center provides training on psychological first aid and recovery to help reduce stigma around mental health topics and care.

General Medical Education & National Clinician Scholars Program – Psychiatry Residency
Training the next generation of providers

The Public Partnership for Wellbeing includes two training programs that support expertise development around community engagement, health services research, quality improvement, health equity, and policy, to nurture an active career using those skills in future providers and making a change in society.

DMH + Semel Institute Position for National Clinician Scholars Program (NCSP)

Trains mental health clinicians to perform collaborative research with diverse communities to address health disparities.

UCLA Campus Depression Grand Challenge

Screening and Treatment for Anxiety and Depression (STAND) at ELAC
Developing a sustainable care service model for students at ELAC

STAND at ELAC brings an effective peer treatment model to the students at East Los Angeles College (ELAC) who may be experiencing anxiety or depression. Utilizing a convenient screening process, participants are grouped based on their need and receive virtual training support around mental health or in-person services. This screening tool requires sophisticated technology to ensure students receive the appropriate resources and follow up. To address the issue of attrition for students in the virtual group, participants are linked to a peer coach who engages with them around lessons taught in the online platform and creates space for processing and asking questions around what they have learned.

UCLA School of Education and Information Sciences

UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families
Strengthening School Communities

The Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families focuses on child welfare intervention and prevention. The Center is working with the Community Schools Initiative (CSI), a program aimed at prevention that gives caregivers and students access to services supporting reduced absenteeism, increased graduation rates, and increased caregiver involvement. Through listening sessions and resource creation, the Pritzker Center focuses on the CSI implementation in schools and builds synergy between the LA County Office of Education (LACOE) and DMH to support this programming.

UCLA Department of Economics

California Policy Lab
Applying a data science lens to county administration and program design

The California Policy Lab (CPL) focuses on enhancing the administrative data collected by DMH to support informed decision-making. They accomplish this goal through data discovery and diagnosis, applied research, and the development of automated analytics. The team spends time with DMH administrative teams to understand how data are gathered, stored, and used and provides consultation on changes that could be made at each stage to optimize the data for research applications. This enhances

Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (DMH)

The nation’s largest public mental health department uses a “heart-forward” approach to support recovery and wellbeing.

UCLA

The public research university’s primary purpose is the creation, dissemination, preservation and application of knowledge for the betterment of our global society.