Equity Centered Communications
Inspiring action toward a more equitable future.
Helping Families Heal & Reunite During A Pandemic
"DMH Stories of Impact" is a series highlighting moments in the lives of LA County Residents. These stories are meant to inspire readers to think about how they can work with, and for, their communities to support healing and wellbeing. Read on to see one of the stories Equity Centered Communications helped curate.
Navigating the child welfare system is normally a traumatic experience for families. The pandemic and all its side effects have made that experience tougher than ever. Court closures mean parents working to reunite their families have to wait for instructions and updates to visitation rights. Children have to wait longer before returning home, or before they can learn who their forever family might be. On top of those challenges, we are physically isolated, meaning we all feel a little alone right now.
The Department of Mental Health (DMH), and more specifically its Child Welfare Division, exist for moments like these. To support children and families in processing their trauma, and to help them realize that they aren’t alone.
Martina is a DMH Clinician who works at the Medical Hubs. If you aren’t familiar with the Hubs, they are a health services program integrated with mental health, child and family services, and public health staff, to ensure youth affected by the child welfare system are healthy and have access to quality care.
At the beginning of the stay at home orders, Martina was working with a family that was recently separated as a part of a child welfare investigation. There were 3 siblings in the family, and Martina worked closely with their relative caregivers to refer one child to mental health services. She also worked to ensure existing therapy continued for the other two children. If you have ever had to change therapists you know it can be a jarring experience. Ensuring children can continue seeing their existing therapist is critical for their healing journey. Martina’s goal was to help them process the trauma they were experiencing in healing-centered settings.
That’s all Martina is required to do, but she didn’t stop there. While talking with the children’s mother, we’ll call her Laura, she learned that Laura was very concerned that her court date would be delayed for months due to COVID-19 closures. Because of those delays, she had not yet received orders for things like parenting classes that would help her reunite with her children sooner.
A few people had advised Laura that if the judge hadn’t ordered services yet she’d be wasting her time enrolling, but she felt differently. Laura also let Martina know that she would appreciate mental health services for herself, to work through the trauma of separation and the events that led to that separation.
Martina, listening to Laura’s needs, shared a newly implemented virtual parenting class that complied with stay-at-home guidelines and that fit Laura’s specific goals. Martina also helped Laura connect with free mental health services at a DMH directly operated clinic.
Mental health services and parenting classes have been proven to increase stability for children and families experiencing trauma. Because of Martina’s efforts, 3 children have what they need to build resilience and make sure their lives are not defined by their trauma. Also, their mother has parenting and wellbeing resources to help her through a time of personal and social crisis.
These services are known to help reunite families without future involvement in the child welfare system. This means Laura is more likely to reunite her family sooner, despite the delays court closures may have caused. That is fulfilling the mission of the Child Welfare Division, and promoting healing for some of LA County’s most vulnerable and marginalized residents.
Thank you Martina for working to reduce the impact of the pandemic in our communities, and for going above and beyond to promote hope, recovery, and wellbeing.