Domestic violence (DV) affects an estimated 20% of women in Los Angeles, and people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals carry an even greater burden. DV affects many aspects of a survivor’s life, and survivors often lack sufficient resources and services to seek support. Proper support is vital to empowering survivors to seek justice and protection, to improve their overall wellbeing, and to transition into safe living situations. PHS partnered with LA County Office of Women’s Health (OWH) and High Top HR to conduct a rapid-response study providing a long overdue analysis of the reimbursement model and rates needed to provide crucial DV support services. Together with participating providers and key informants, we helped identify promising reimbursement models for OWH to better serve DV survivors and the agencies who support them.
Read MoreInvestment in health infrastructure is a top priority in California, where a recent state proposition has funded initiatives to expand mental health and substance use disorder services. PHS is serving as a partner to Advocates for Human Potential to support a gap analysis for identifying opportunities to bolster the behavioral health continuum of care. This includes co-defining, modeling, and visualizing more than 40 geographic and population health indicators. Our analytic tools are helping changemakers to achieve the goal of greater health equity.
Read MoreSHIELDS for Families has worked to empower and advocate for families in South Los Angeles for more than 30 years. The organization engaged PHS to conduct a community needs assessment to further uplift voices of clients, community members, and collaborators. Our needs assessment successfully supported the design and roll-out of South LA’s first certified community behavioral health clinic.
Read MoreHealing-centered care is essential to achieving health equity, a core value and impact area for PHS. Health care providers often seek our support in exploring what constitutes culturally-relevant care in the communities they serve and designing responsive programs. With our partners at Adventist Health White Memorial Hospital, PHS applied human-centered design to the development and pilot of an OB/GYN medical education curriculum to support healing-centered care. Credit for mural in photo: East Los Skyscrapers
Read MoreSparkPoint Centers are community centers designed to support students and families in achieving academic success and housing and economic stability. PHS and partner Cindy J. Wong Consulting were engaged by United Way Bay Area to complete a participatory evaluation of the SparkPoint Toolkit. The final Toolkit is being used by colleges and universities statewide to support equitable pathways to prosperity for their students.
Read MorePHS collaborated with Oregon Department of Justice Trafficking Response and Intervention Program (TRIP) on a community intervention to respond to human trafficking. The TRIP team worked with survivors, advocates, and service providers to compile their stories. PHS in turn designed story cards and a facilitator’s guide to make the stories accessible. The materials are being used to train service providers who engage with survivors of sex trafficking.
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