Current:Home > MyPioneering L.A. program seeks to find and help homeless people with mental illness-LoTradeCoin
Pioneering L.A. program seeks to find and help homeless people with mental illness
View Date:2024-12-23 23:58:19
Recent figures show more than 75,000 are living on the streets in Los Angeles County, a rise of 9% since 2022. Many of them are experiencing some kind of mental illness, which can be intensified by the stress of not having a home.
Now, one pioneering program is trying to help by seeking out patients — instead of waiting for patients to come to them.
It is difficult to get homeless people to visit mental health clinics or stick to a regimen of medication, said Dr. Shayan Rab, a psychiatrist and member of Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health's Homeless Outreach and Mobile Engagement (HOME) program team. That's why Rab and his colleagues take a different approach, bringing their compassion and expertise to the streets, where they form bonds and build trust with their patients – or clients, as they refer to them.
"Every once in a while, people in interim housing; they make a rapid turn. The bond with the team gets better. They start trusting us," Rab said.
The team's work is holistic. Along with diagnosing and treating mental illness, they work tirelessly to find people housing — permanent if possible, temporary if not — in an effort to break a cycle of deprivation, hopelessness and oftentimes, violence.
"If you're working with severe mental illness and you're working with chronic homelessness, treatment and housing need to be done simultaneously," Rab said.
The HOME team, which launched last year, is "relentless," Rab said.
"We are showing up every day because, you know, we know that homelessness will, can result in an early death," he said.
Mike, who asked to be identified only by his first name, spent the last 20 years living on Los Angeles' streets. He was a loner, surviving mostly on a daily morning burrito – a substantial meal, he said, that would keep the hunger pangs away for the rest of the day.
But with the HOME team's help, he started taking a combination of medications that kept him grounded and clear-eyed, more so than he had been in two decades.
After a course of treatment, administered when the HOME team would show up at his tent, the team found him a room in an L.A. care facility. He has now been living for almost a year, and has rediscovered old bonds. Rab located his estranged brother, Vikram. When the psychiatrist first called him, mentioning Mike's name, Vikram thought he was calling to tell him his brother had died.
"I'm glad there are these sort of people doing this sort of work for you," Vikram told Mike, when they spoke for the first time in years. Rab held the phone up for him so they could see each other's faces as they reconnected.
A sense of security and hopefulness is something that another one of Rab's clients, Marla, was longing for when she met Rab. She was, by her own admission, "a bit lost" after five years living on the streets, most recently in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley.
Rab met her regularly, providing her treatment, and she recently moved into sheltered housing.
"I feel that new promises are going to happen down the road," she said.
veryGood! (6)
Related
- Messi breaks silence on Inter Miami's playoff exit. What's next for his time in the US?
- Actor Tom Wilkinson, known for 'The Full Monty,' dies at 75
- China’s manufacturing activity slows in December in latest sign the economy is still struggling
- Oregon newspaper forced to lay off entire staff after discovering that an employee embezzled funds
- Why Dolly Parton Is a Fan of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's Little Love Affair
- North Korea’s Kim orders military to ‘thoroughly annihilate’ US, South Korea if provoked
- Michigan woman waits 3 days to tell husband about big lottery win: 'I was trying to process'
- Shecky Greene, legendary standup comic, improv master and lord of Las Vegas, dies at 97
- Whoopi Goldberg calling herself 'a working person' garners criticism from 'The View' fans
- In rare apology, Israeli minister says she ‘sinned’ for her role in reforms that tore country apart
Ranking
- Multi-State Offshore Wind Pact Weakened After Connecticut Sits Out First Selection
- Kirk Cousins leads 'Skol' chant before Minnesota Vikings' game vs. Green Bay Packers
- Inkster native on a mission to preserve Detroit Jit
- Dave Chappelle goes after disabled community in 'The Dreamer': 'I love punching down'
- Sister Wives’ Kody Brown Explains His Stance on His Daughter Gwendlyn Brown’s Sexuality
- Michigan giving 'big middle finger' to its critics with College Football Playoff run
- Music producers push for legal protections against AI: There's really no regulation
- Russia launches record number of drones across Ukraine as Moscow and Kyiv continue aerial attacks
Recommendation
-
Report: Jaguars' Trevor Lawrence could miss rest of season with shoulder injury
-
Conor McGregor says he's returning at International Fight Week to face Michael Chandler
-
Sen. Fetterman says he thought news about his depression treatment would end his political career
-
A man is arrested in Arkansas in connection with the death of a co-worker in Maine
-
Some women are stockpiling Plan B and abortion pills. Here's what experts have to say.
-
Bears clinch No. 1 pick in 2024 NFL draft thanks to trade with Panthers
-
Beyond Times Square: A giant Peep, a wrench, a crab. A look at the weirdest NYE drops.
-
'Steamboat Willie' is now in the public domain. What does that mean for Mickey Mouse?