THE CHILDREN'S CLINIC SERVING CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES

PROVIDING BEHAVIORAL HEALTH/MENTAL HEALTH: Expanded Mental/Behavioral Health Services: TCC provides critically needed services for behavioral health issues including anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, educational setbacks, increased drug and alcohol use, adverse childhood events, and post traumatic stress disorder - all compounded by the ongoing challenges. TCC has specially trained physicians and nurse practitioners to serve unique populations with mental health issues such as children and people experiencing homelessness with support from a consulting psychiatrist. Addressing Adversity: Flourishing Families Long Beach (FFLB) was funded from fiscal year 2023-2024 through a grant from the LA County Department of Mental Health. This community partnership, a Mental Health Services Act Innovation II project, addressed and sought to prevent adversity and promote healing in our youngest children, families and elderly among generations focusing on the Latino, African American and Cambodian populations. Over 30 community and public based organizations worked side by side with TCC's Flourishing Families team to implement the selected strategies and help build the capacity of our communities to work collectively toward supporting community identification and reduction of adversity in children ages 0 to 5 and intergenerationally. This FFLB partnership/learning community coordinated online and in-person community-based activities, events and workshops that linked residents to resources and covered a multitude of mental health topics, including stress and anxiety management, as well as suicide, familial violence, child abuse, and drug and alcohol prevention. FFLB members were trained in the Community Resiliency Model (CRM), a skills-based program focusing on the biological reactions that occurs in response to stressful events and using wellness skills to help families move through the stressful event, and to return to a zone of resilience or the ability to tolerate the trauma-related symptoms. FFLB collaborative partner agencies played an essential role in coordinating outreach and engagement strategies to enhance mental health awareness and education. A few of these outreach strategies included children's theater workshops, parent and child mindfulness workshops, storytelling groups, support groups relating to community capacity building, folk-dance classes, Zumba classes, support groups for teens and elderly individuals, and budget friendly meal prepping classes among others. A highly reflective methodology was used to assess the impact of FFLB collaborative efforts which uncovered the following thematic highlights: * Basic resources helped stabilize individuals and families in times of need and opened the door to other services. * Front-line staff from the community who shared their lived experience with participants were key to making community members feel welcome, safe and heard. * Education and training provided community members with knowledge, tools and skills that were organically shared with extended family and friends, which has the potential for strengthening communities in the longer term.