Sonoma County gets $1M grant for post-fire mental health

Kaiser Permanente Northern California Community Benefit fund has awarded Sonoma County Department of Health Services (DHS) a $1 million grant to continue the California Helping Outreach Possibilities Empowering (HOPE) program, which delivers mental health services targeting those affected by the wildfires in October 2017.

The county stated that the grant will be used to create a field-based crisis counseling program that engages survivors “wherever they are in the community-home, work or any other place.”

With the end-date of its original grant from FEMA looming in December 2018, DHS recognized the need to continue crisis counseling in the community to support ongoing recovery efforts well beyond 2018, the county’s announcement stated Wednesday.

DHS saw an opportunity for continuing and expanding California HOPE and applied for a grant through the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Community Benefit and was selected earlier this month.

“This grant is one of the ways we are demonstrating our commitment to some of the most vulnerable people in our community who continue to feel the effects of trauma after the wildfires,” said Judy Coffey, RN, Kaiser Permanente Sr. Vice President and Area Manager, Marin-Sonoma.

In the last three months California HOPE staff have reported making nearly 1,000 contacts per month, demonstrating the need is still great in the county.