Expanding Mental Health Care at Daniel’s Place

Mental health

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Step Up has long experience with and understanding of mental health and homelessness. The 2023 Los Angeles County Point-in-Time count revealed an increase in youth between the ages of 18 and 28 experiencing homelessness, rising from 2,786 in 2022 to 3,718 in 2023. Complex histories of trauma and mental health conditions often compound their experiences of homelessness. Surveys of these youth in Los Angeles have revealed that 63% had an open case with the child welfare system before age 18, 25% had foster care system involvement, and 16% had juvenile justice system involvement. Research indicates that unaccompanied youth without shelter face significantly higher rates of early death, with suicide being the leading cause. Without appropriate and compassionate intervention, many experiencing homelessness are at high risk of entering a cycle of chronic homelessness, dependence on social services, and aversion to society.

With the intersection of needs and challenges above, Step Up is prioritizing the expansion of mental health services offered at Daniel’s Place, a drop-in center for youth. Specifically, Step Up seeks financial support to provide Daniel’s Place service staff training in EMDR therapy. This cutting-edge, evidence-based therapy modality encourages the patient to focus briefly on a trauma memory while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation (typically eye movements). This stimulation reduces the vividness and emotion associated with the trauma memories. EMDR is a newly developed, technique that has been proven to be an effective psychotherapy method that helps participants recover from trauma, PTSD symptoms, depression, anxiety, and even psychosis. EMDR has also been shown to be more rapid and effective than trauma-focused talk therapy. The main focus of this pilot program is to provide direct service staff with the necessary training, build the internal infrastructure needed to provide EMDR therapy, and supplement existing service contracts that do not cover EMDR therapy for its members. Step Up will use the information gathered during this first year of implementation to assess the efficacy of EMDR therapy and decide how best to modify the program, if necessary, to achieve the most positive results possible for Daniel’s Place members seeking to address their mental health concerns.

Addressing homelessness and mental health is one of the most pressing issues facing Los Angeles today. Step Up also understands the challenges for its Daniel’s Place members to remain engaged in therapy for a sustained period due to busy schedules with school and work, wanting to be more independent, and the stigma around being in a mental health program. Through EMDR, Daniel’s Place can provide members with a therapy modality that addresses the root cause of symptoms while reducing the overall time they're in treatment. By expanding the available offerings of mental health services at Daniel’s Place to include EMDR and demonstrating the efficacy of this modality, results will provide Los Angeles public agencies with another tool for combating youth homelessness and improving the lives of young adults experiencing severe mental health conditions.

The Daniel’s Place programs are ongoing, but the EMDR training is a new initiative to expand its mental health services. When implementing new program strategies, Step Up aims to collect comprehensive measurements of the program’s efficacy to assess its long-term impact. Step Up tracks the performance measures of its programs and initiatives by compiling reports to determine the number of services delivered, to whom, and in what areas. The agency’s direct service staff monitors and documents housing stability, changes in well-being, progress made in self-sufficiency, and economic stability. Step Up plans to evaluate the impact and success of EMDR therapy at Daniel’s Place by compiling reports to assess the number of services delivered, to whom, and the reported impact of the sessions. Step Up will also gather participant surveys on EMDR sessions to gain insight into how its young adult members experience its effectiveness in addressing their mental well-being.