Whole Person HEaLing Starts Here

Health care access

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit) Other

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Each year, Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center (RRUMC) treats over 1,800 critically injured patients—56% are at risk for mental health complications. These risks are often shaped by negative social drivers of health, including housing instability, limited access to employment, or justice system involvement. Trauma can magnify these challenges and delay healing. Yet most trauma systems still focus only on physical injury. HEaL fills this gap through early mental health screening, bedside engagement, coordinated post-discharge support, and continued outpatient care as patients navigate recovery in their communities. Our PTSD outreach system identifies high-risk patients and connects them to psychological care from a trauma-specific provider—the same provider they worked with during their hospital stay. HEaL demonstrates what trauma recovery should be: accessible, integrated, and designed to meet the complex needs of survivors across both clinical and community settings.

The HEaL Trauma Program is a hospital- and community-based initiative that ensures survivors of traumatic injury are connected to care that continues after discharge. This grant will expand our post-discharge PTSD screening and referral system, linking high-risk patients to outpatient care with the same trauma psychologist they met during their hospital stay. This continuity of care removes administrative and insurance-related barriers, making mental health access timely, trauma-informed, and equitable.
Our CHWs provide culturally responsive support with housing, insurance, care navigation, and unmet social needs. HEaL advances health care access by integrating medical and mental health services with wraparound community support. We also contribute to community safety by helping patients regain stability and avoid preventable harm through sustained care and trusted relationships. We plan to conduct qualitative interviews with HEaL clients to evaluate impact. Participants will receive support from our psychology fellow and stipends to honor their time and emotional labor.
HEaL’s model is working—but current budget cuts and a cautious health system funding climate threaten our ability to grow. This evaluation period is critical to building the data needed for long-term institutional support. Funding will help us strengthen access, deepen impact, and prove what equitable trauma recovery can look like.

Los Angeles will be a place where trauma survivors are not discharged into isolation, but into coordinated care that supports healing, stability, and self-advocacy. HEaL dismantles systemic inequities by ensuring all survivors—regardless of background—can access trauma-informed care, critical resources, and tools to advocate for their recovery. Through our PTSD screening and referral system, survivors access timely mental health care from trusted in-house providers.
Our HEaL team helps patients navigate complex medical, mental health, and social systems that often feel impossible to access after trauma. This approach meets immediate needs, supports long-term recovery, reduces avoidable ED visits, and promotes community stability.
With a formal evaluation, we aim to use outcomes to advocate for health system investment and position HEaL as a sustainable, institutional model of care. HEaL is more than a program—it’s a blueprint for transforming how cities care for people after trauma.