...training the professionals of today, teaching the workforce of tomorrow, tracking the effectiveness of integrated services

This cornerstone of our work – with components that educate, replicate and evaluate – strengthens the system of mental health care in Los Angeles County, across California and in other parts of the nation.

We advance the "integrated services” model of mental health care – which provides a comprehensive, coordinated range of services – by training others in our approach and tracking its effectiveness for system leaders and policy makers. We attract bilingual and bicultural young people to human service careers to meet the growing need for diversity in the workforce. We assist people with mental illness in learning how to speak out about their needs.

Our designs are a growing direction for mental health care. The MHA Village earned distinction as an “exemplary practice” from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which provided federal funds to help others replicate our model. Two of our services – the MHA Village and Project Return: The Next Step – are models for Partners in CARE (Community Access to Recovery and Empowerment), a National Mental Health Association initiative to replicate effective services for people with mental illness.

The components of our Training and Research services are:

• Human Services Academy is a pipeline program to increase the number of bilingual and bicultural youth who pursue careers in mental health and other human services. A collaboration with the Los Angeles Unified School District, the Academy combines classroom instruction, community employment, career exploration and college planning. As a small learning environment, the Academy offers students the support they need to succeed in school and continue their education.

• Immersion Training at the MHA Village offers mental health professionals, people with mental illness and families hands-on experience in our integrated services model. They spend two to three days with us, studying the MHA Village’s philosophy and programs and teaming up with our staff to practice the principles they have learned.

• Consulting Services guide service systems through a process of investigating and implementing an integrated services structure. Among these, we have consulted with mental health stakeholders in Kansas, Florida, Ohio, Nebraska and Washington D.C. Their projects were funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Consensus Building Program, through which communities select an innovative service to replicate.

• Research specializes in integrated services evaluation, which uses the “quality of life” outcomes system designed by MHA’s director of research. At the request of our state’s mental health department, MHA is tracking outcomes for the AB 34 projects in 34 California counties. These projects provide integrated services to individuals with mental illness who are homeless, recently released from jail or at serious risk of jail or homelessness. We maintain a web site, www.ab34.org, so projects may share information and success stories.

• Project Return: The Next Step – our program run by and for people with mental illness – provides training to help individuals move ahead in their recovery and self-reliance. It trains in areas such as self-advocacy and advance directives to help people with mental illness take greater charge of their own lives. Its workshops introduce individuals to a variety of recovery approaches.