Wellness and Mental Health Services

 

“Wellness is an essential role in combating homelessness. We all have one mind, one body, and one soul and keeping these parts healthy is part of the housing goal.”

Raymond ColeHospital Liaison, Wellness, and Enhanced Care Manager

Wellness Programs and Services at Ascencia

Ascencia offers many services to help our residents who struggle with physical and mental health issues, substance abuse, and disabilities. Health, both mental and physical, can be a barrier to housing and stability when you don’t have the proper care or resources to help you. Ascencia bridges this gap by helping clients to work through trauma and remove barriers.

Case Management and Housing Programs

The Wellness Department is a team of Case Managers who help service clients with mental health issues and/or physical disabilities. Wellness case managers work closely with each client to create a customized care plan that addresses all of their mental and physical health concerns. This includes coordinating medical appointments, providing counseling and therapy services, and connecting clients with community resources.

Staff are trained to provide comprehensive support to individuals with complex needs within our wellness programs, including Next Step Permanent Supportive Housing, Shelter Plus Care (CoC), Enhanced Care Management (ECM) and Community Supports (CS). Our contracted managed care plans are with: Anthem, HealthNet, Molina, LA Care, and Independent Living Services (ILS).

Hospital Program

Ascencia partners with hospitals to get client referrals. Frequent utilizers of hospital emergency room services will be sent to our Access Center to work with our Hospital Case Manager and Wellness Team. Clients are provided with 30 days in the emergency shelter program as they work to become document ready, increase their income, and obtain housing. This not only provides temporary housing, but also relieves the burden on hospitals to care for frequent visitors.

We currently partner with: BHC Alhambra Hospital, Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, Providence St. Joseph, and USC Arcadia Hospital. 

Photo of Ascencia client Judith, smiling after finding housing

Mental Health Services

Trauma Therapy

Trauma Therapy is an approach that recognizes and emphasizes how traumatic experiences impact an individual’s mental, behavioral, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being.

Ascencia contracts with licensed therapists who work with our clients to unpack their experiences and offer them skills, strategies, and other tools to assist them with coping with, understanding, and processing their emotions and memories tied to these traumatic experiences.

By healing traumatic experiences and teaching coping mechanisms, clients are one step closer to the life that they want and deserve.

Group Therapy at Ascencia

Tele-Psychiatry

Telepsychiatry, a subset of telehealth, involves providing a range of services including psychiatric evaluations, therapy (individual therapy, group therapy, family therapy), patient education and medication management. The intention of telehealth across all types of health care is to provide additional access to care by reducing barriers including needing transportation, child or care, or time off work in order to meet with your doctor.

Mental health issues go untreated when people don’t have the money or resources to access the care they need. This proves to be a consistent barrier to housing, which is why we find it so important to offer this service to our clients.

Our Telepsychiatry services assist our clients experiencing homelessness in reducing mental health barriers to help them to stabilize in the course of securing and maintaining permanent housing.

Children’s Art Therapy

Art therapy uses creative mediums like drawing, painting, coloring, and sculpture. Clients are invited to move their bodies, paint, write, and draw and use music to explore and express their emotions and feelings with the hopes of learning, in a sensory way, about the power of the arts for healing and transformation.

Ascencia contracts with a licensed Art Therapist who comes on-site multiple times per week to conduct sessions with clients.

This form of therapy is used to assist our young clients to express and explore their own traumatic episodes in an environment and manner that is familiar to them.

Children's Art Therapy

Occupational Therapy and Financial Literacy

Occupational Therapy

Occupational Therapy

In partnership with West Coast University’s Occupational Therapy Program, Ascencia provides occupational engagement and group-based interventions to foster health promotion, housing placement, and stability. Ascencia holds OT workshops at least once a week, led by our OT interns, offering a variety of group sessions with clients such as reintegration courses, stress-relief techniques, and motor functioning activities. Some previous workshops include: “Healthy Eating”, “Housing Readiness”, and “Handling Conflict”.

Financial Literacy

Achieving financial security requires more than just balancing a budget. Even before individuals and families experiencing homelessness have access to income, whether through employment or social supports, they need to recognize themselves as assets that can be engaged to achieve their desired outcomes. We provide our residents with Financial Literacy courses to teach them how to build financial sustainability. By providing them the tools and allowing them opportunities to practice these tools, our residents are ready to transition back into society once they are permanently housed.