Newsletter Article

Caring for Californians: CalHOPE Support Reaches Communities Statewide With Counseling, Resource Services

Key Staff: Kim Flores, CalHOPE Project Manager

In partnership with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), CalMHSA has awarded $33 million to 21 community organizations to implement the CalHOPE Support Program (CHSP), which provides in-person and virtual outreach and non-clinical support services to Californians, with agencies located from Butte County to San Diego.

The CHSP relies on community organizations to reach California’s diverse ethnic, racial, LGBTQ+, and gender nonconforming communities – with a focus on individual, family, and group counseling, as well as resource linkage for children, youth, and their families.

Additionally, the chat app CalHOPE Connect (www.calhopeconnect.org) offers safe, secure, and culturally sensitive emotional support related to stress, anxiety, and depression for all Californians who may need it. Using the app, anyone can chat with a real person via text seven days a week from 8 a.m. – midnight. CalMHSA created the chat app as part of the COVID Crisis Counseling Program (CCP) it administered with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

To date, counselors have provided over 250,000 chats with visitors to the site. In the COVID Crisis Counseling Program, counselors conducted over 83,000 individual and family sessions, counseled over 187,000 individuals in group sessions, and touched almost 1.2 million Californians through their outreach efforts. CalMHSA will continue this vital work with funding from DHCS.

March 28, 2023