It was midnight when Dina and her two children fled their home in Santa Barbara and began making their way to Radiant Futures’s emergency shelter.

After the stay-at-home order was announced in response to COVID-19 last year, Dina became more and more afraid for her family’s safety – both in and outside their home. Dina had already been experiencing physical, emotional, financial, and sexual abuse from her partner, but as the pandemic stretched on, her family also began experiencing increased stress, isolation, and an uptick in violent episodes. Dina knew that she and her children needed to leave the home.

Dina wanted to start fresh, but she also knew she didn’t want to do it alone. She found Radiant Futures on social media and courageously reached out for support and guidance. After arriving at Radiant Futures’s emergency shelter, the family began receiving clinical services right away to process their experiences of trauma and find healing together.

As the weeks passed, the family transitioned from the emergency shelter to an apartment unit of their own. Dina and her children wanted to continue counseling services, but they didn’t have reliable transportation to continue attending therapy sessions in-person on a regular basis. Dina had also just started a new job, which made maintaining appointments at Radiant Futures’s Center even more difficult.

To help them not skip a beat, their Clinical Advocate transitioned the family to a combination of mobile and telemental health services. Providing clinical treatment in these ways promoted the continuation of care while supporting the stabilization of their mental health needs. Dina and her children expressed their gratitude for the multiple avenues to continue their counseling services, noting it was helpful to have alternatives to in-person sessions at the Center.

The utilization of mobile and telemental health platforms for clinical services increases Radiant Futures’s ability to support participants who experience various barriers to attending treatment in-person at Radiant Futures’s Center. Radiant Futures strives to break down barriers that impact participants’ ability to receive services, such as lack of childcare, reliable transportation, financial constraints, comfort, and time/scheduling conflicts.

Clinical Advocates are glad to offer individualized care for those in need, assessing and providing services in the avenues that work best for each individual person, whether face-to-face at the Center, virtually, or elsewhere in the community. To find out more about Radiant Futures’s Clinical Services, call Radiant Futures’s 24/7 multilingual Helpline at 877-531-5522.