The United States Census Bureau has set the nationwide poverty level for a family with two children at $29,678 in annual household income. In 2021, the bureau estimated that some 7,000 Indio households—roughly 16% of the city’s families—were living below the poverty level.
In the neighboring city of Coachella, the bureau estimated that some 5,000 households—or roughly one-third of the city’s families—existed below the poverty level.
It is this environment, where economic hardship exacerbates personal stress, that prompted the Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine and the Joslyn Center to team up to provide counseling outreach to low-income, often-uninsured residents of the eastern Coachella Valley.
It’s a collaboration between two organizations that have long served valley residents in need. Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine has since 2010 operated the only no-cost health care center in the Coachella Valley, in Indio. Since the early 1980s, the Joslyn Center has been “leading the way by enhancing the quality of life for older adults,” according to the organization’s vision statement.
“Our patients were saying … the reasons for their anxiety and depression were stemming from the issues they were dealing with on a daily basis—and that came back to money and credit,” said Doug Morin, the executive director of Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine, during a recent interview. “How do they get out of the apartment or neighborhood that they don’t feel safe in if they don’t qualify to meet the credit requirements for the new apartment on the other side of town?
“We realized that what we needed were some very short-term, problem-focused, goal-focused therapies or strategies. You can’t get a good job because you don’t have a high school diploma … so what can you do about that? Maybe a good plan is to go to adult school and get your GED. It’s not going to happen overnight … but when you’re at the end of that, the next time you go to apply for a job, you can say that you do have a high school diploma.”
Morin said he and his all-volunteer team of doctors, nurses and other health professionals learned a lot of lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Within a matter of days, we changed our model from in-person patient visits to communicating with patients over the telephone,” Morin said. “But more than that, we wanted to do something to see how our patients were doing emotionally. How was their emotional health? What things besides a new prescription did they need? How were they dealing with the children being at home? How were they dealing with depression? If they lost their jobs, how were they dealing with that? Were they aware of the various resources? One of the things that we had our social worker do immediately was start contacting every one of our patients. … In an informal survey, we asked our patients, ‘In the last six weeks, have you experienced avoiding or cancelling some sort of social outing because of anxiety or depression?’ More than half of our patients answered yes to that question. We assumed that was because of COVID-19, … and to a degree, that was true. But when we really started drilling down, patients were saying (the problem) was their general mental health— behavioral health and emotional issues that they were feeling even before COVID. COVID just compounded everything they were already feeling.”
Meanwhile, the Joslyn Center has been hiring bilingual counselors to interface with Spanish-speaking residents, and has established working relationships with east valley organizations that could offer a physical location where counselors and patients could meet.
“When we were looking at expansion, we met with several people in the east valley,” said Jack Newby, the executive director of the Joslyn Center, in a recent interview. “They were telling us that there really was an acute need (for counseling) in the community. I’ve known Doug Morin at the Volunteers in Medicine for quite a while. We were looking at some other potential sites, and then a light bulb went on over my head, and it said, ‘Call Doug!’”
Newby said Morin was receptive to the idea; the next step was to figure out the logistics.
“(This new program) is for CVVIM patients as well as clients who our counselors bring in through their own outreach,” Newby said. “We’re all very excited that this is able to move forward.”
According to Newby, the counseling sessions are provided at no cost to the patients, and are designed for adults age 50 and older, although younger patients can be treated as well. Each patient can receive up to 12 sessions, at least to start.
“If they have an additional issue that comes up, or they want to talk to the therapist again, they are welcome to come back,” Newby said. “We just want to make sure that it doesn’t become a co-dependent relationship. We want people to receive benefit from their therapy and be able to move on with their lives, and overcome the problems that they are experiencing.”
“Instead of ‘therapies,’ we’re calling them ‘strategies,’ because it takes away some of the stigma of the word ‘therapy.’ Many of our patients grow up in a culture and an environment where they can’t afford health insurance, let alone behavioral health insurance.”
Doug Morin, Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine
Newby said the program has already begun.
“We’re starting out slow,” Newby said. “We’ve set aside hours to see if we are able to fill up the spaces. As that expands, we will work on expanding the number of hours available. … All the counselors who we use are master’s degree counselors in either marriage and family therapy or clinical social work, and they are all supervised once a week by a licensed clinical social worker. That way, (the counselors) can earn their hours towards licensure. That’s another part of this program that we’re very proud of: We are able to help our counselors get their hours in, get licensed and go out into the community as full-fledged therapists.”
Morin said he sees the program as just the start of expanded behavioral and mental health services at the CVVIM facility in Indio.
“Over time, we’ll bring this in as a program, and we’ll have our own staff providing the behavioral and mental health services,” Morin said. “I like what we’re calling (this program) with Joslyn Center. Instead of ‘therapies,’ we’re calling them ‘strategies,’ because it takes away some of the stigma of the word ‘therapy.’ Many of our patients grow up in a culture and an environment where they can’t afford health insurance, let alone behavioral health insurance. … You keep those things in the family, or you speak about them to your priest, or somebody at the church—but you don’t go outside and share those sorts of things with other individuals … mostly it’s because this was a luxury that they couldn’t afford. ‘Pay for somebody to help you solve your problems? Are you nuts? Get out of bed. Go out and do your job. Come home, and hopefully you did a little bit better today than you did the day before.’
“So this is a natural evolution for us. Our board felt there was a real need for emotional health, behavioral health, mental health—whatever you want to call it—to be part of primary health care. It’s not separate. We can’t look at an individual and treat their physical health without looking at their mental health.”
For more information, call Kristina Banda with Coachella Valley Volunteers in Medicine at 760-342-4414, or Alex Garcia with the Joslyn Center at 760-340-3220, ext. 117.
