Supporting Los Angeles County’s Most Vulnerable
Challenges faced by people experiencing homelessness are often complex and overwhelming. For those also struggling with severe mental illness and its associated impairments, accessing the services and supports needed to obtain housing can be an insurmountable obstacle. Serving unhoused adults with severe mental illness who decline other services, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH) Homeless Outreach & Mobile Engagement (HOME) Program aims to meet the most vulnerable and disengaged in the community where they are at and do whatever it takes to help them move towards housing and recovery.
Addressing Impaired Insight and Judgment
Anosognosia is a condition in which a person is unaware of their own health issues or other problems. This condition frequently accompanies severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder. Often described as a “lack of insight” or “denial of deficit,” it means that people may genuinely not realize they are impaired or understand why they need help. HOME specializes in serving people with these impairments who have previously not been able to effectively engage in mental health treatment or obtain housing.
Outreach, Engagement, Assessment, and Treatment
Combining the principles of persistent outreach and engagement with the benefits of the full scope of services offered by LACDMH and its partners, HOME provides:
- Outreach and engagement
- Assistance with basic needs
- Access to interim and permanent housing
- Connection to primary medical care
- Benefits establishment and obtaining vital documents
- Street psychiatry assessment and treatment
- Medication administration and delivery
- Initiation of psychiatric inpatient services
- Outpatient-initiated referral for LPS conservatorship
- Intensive follow-up care
Refer for Recovery and Reconnection
From General Public: submit a request for homeless outreach through the Los Angeles Homeless Outreach Portal at www.LA–HOP.org. Individuals will be triaged to HOME when appropriate.
From Homeless Outreach Providers and Government Agencies: submit a referral using the LACDMH Universal Entry Referral: https://lacdmhowr.powerappsportals.us/. Individuals will be triaged to HOME when appropriate.
From Mental Health Providers: use the Service Request Tracking System (SRTS) to send a referral form to “19L1 HOME Operations and Navigation.”
From Hospitals: complete a HOME referral form and send via email to HOME@dmh.lacounty.gov.
Additional Information
- Printable Flyer
- Program Highlight
- Press coverage about HOME
- The New York Times “The crisis of homelessness is pushing American psychiatry to places it has not gone before — like sidewalk injections of antipsychotics.”
- Los Angeles Times “L.A.’s first street psychiatrist makes his sidewalk rounds, transforming homeless lives”
- CBS “Pioneering L.A. program seeks to find and help homeless people with mental illness”
- KCRW–FM “‘Street psychiatrists’ help unhoused Angelenos access mental health care”
- KPCC–FM “How LA’s ‘Street Psychiatry’ Program Works To Treat People Who Are Unhoused”