TRANSFORMING THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM
The LACDMH Strategic Plan focuses on the change we need to drive across the system, a system we break down into the three key domains where we interface with clients.
- The first domain, Community Services, represented by the green circle in the figure, signifies the North Star where we will always prefer to provide services and opportunity; half of the Strategic Plan focuses on community and ways in which proactive and therapeutic resources can be built up across the County.
- The second domain, the Crisis Care, represented by the yellow ring, includes the intensive care resources needed to help individuals in crisis who are falling out of community.
- The third domain, Re-Entry Initiatives, is represented by the red ring, where our broad portfolio of re-entry resources (including compelled treatment) is deployed to help clients who have fallen out of community into the “open-air” asylum of the street, the “closed-air” asylum of the jail, and the personal asylum of deep isolation.
- The people and processes that guide our work across all three domains create our ever-present department Infrastructure, which is represented by the square and circular lines.
As LACDMH advances its mission, it is entirely committed to playing a key role as partner and contributor to the County’s broader vision for addressing critical challenges and helping communities thrive. To this end, LACDMH has aligned the goals of its plan with the County’s Strategic Plan to ensure a cohesive response.
We invite you to learn more about each of these domains below. You may also download the LACDMH Strategic Plan and its addendums in English and Spanish.
Community Services
The Community, reflected in the green circle, signifies our north star where we will always prefer and strive to provide services and opportunities. Our work in the community domain will eventually interlock to construct a fully heart-forward, recovery-based system of care. In time, we aspire to have enriched, welcoming and inclusive communities where human needs are met in a responsive and effective manner across the County and where falling out of community due to mental illness is neither common nor acceptable. Achieving this goal will require more prevention services, resources to address social determinants and outpatient mental health care.
Crisis Care
Crisis care, reflected in the yellow ring, is defined by our interactions with clients experiencing crises and includes real time services as well as facility-based treatment for rapid stabilization. With a strong crisis system in place, numerous bouts of homelessness and episodes of incarceration (the institutions of our day) can be avoided. Proper function in this domain will require the addition of new staffing capacity, including emergency outreach and triage division reinforcements, and a significant expansion of urgent care, crisis residential (including STRTP), sub-acute and acute treatment beds that together create an impenetrable guardrail around communities to keep our most vulnerable clients out of harm’s way. In short, this portion of the LACDMH Strategic Plan focuses on intensive treatment.
Re-Entry Initiatives
Institutions refer generally to the “open-air” asylum of the streets or the “closed-air” asylum of the jails, neither of which is an acceptable place for engagement and care, let alone habitation. Given the epidemics of homelessness and incarceration in our County, we must be sure that we have in place a robust portfolio of re-entry initiatives designed to care for individuals languishing and subsisting in the institutions and that we provide clear, resourced pathways back to the community. For children, “Institution” refers to prolonged or repeated child welfare involvement and juvenile probation. This portion of the LACDMH Strategic Plan focuses on re-entry initiatives, as indicated by the red ring.
Infrastructure
Our Infrastructure, reflected by the square and circular lines, is where we ensure the department is firmly anchored in the best people and processes to carry out our work. It is ever-present across all three domains and provides a foundation for everything we do. Here is where we prioritize the efficiency and effectiveness needed to achieve the best possible outcomes on behalf our communities. This part of the LACDMH Strategic Plan focuses on organizational support.
If you would like to provide feedback about the Strategic Plan, please email director@dmh.lacounty.gov.