Mental Health Awareness Month – Spotlighting a Revolutionary Care Provider
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. At Feeding San Diego, we recognize how much food insecurity affects mental health. The stress of worrying about your next meal can have massive effects on mental and physical health. As a result, the National Alliance of Mental Health (NAMI) identifies access to nutritious food as a “critical social determinant of health.”
One of Feeding San Diego’s community partners, San Ysidro Health, has created a revolutionary system to deal with various health issues under one roof, including mental health and food insecurity. With over 20 clinic sites and more than 47 different integrated programs, the non-profiit lives up to its mission to provide access for all. We spoke with Laura Andrews, Family Resource Center Coordinator at San Ysidro Health, about using food assistance as healthcare.
Social service providers at San Ysidro Health distribute food to patients
Access for All
“One of the reasons we incorporated the emergency food pantry and the food distribution is that we know how those social determinants of health affect somebody’s wellbeing as well as the physical health and the mental health aspect,” Laura Andrews explained. “If somebody is stressed out about where they’re going to live, somebody can’t even afford food, how do we expect them to follow any of the doctor’s orders? I think the organization realized how that impacts somebody’s ability to become better, to become well, along with their mental health.”
In fact, according to research by the Department of Agriculture (USDA), adults with a mental health disability are up to five times more likely to live in a food-insecure household.
“If somebody is stressed out about where they’re going to live, somebody can’t even afford food, how do we expect them to follow any of the doctor’s orders?”
For over a decade, San Ysidro Health has offered food distribution as part of its services. As their program has grown, they’ve realized how many of their clients struggle to put food on the table.
“The pandemic opened up our doors even more,” Laura Andrews shared. “We collaborated with National City and some food desert areas that weren’t getting a lot of emergency food during the pandemic. That also contributed to us realizing the need in our community for food resources and how it impacts somebody’s wellbeing. A lot of communities have bounced back. But we’re still dealing with the aftermath of people not being employed or no longer having the jobs because their employer never went back to its full capacity, so we’re seeing families in distress.”
Some of the healthy food offered at San Ysidro Health
Streamlining Care
At San Ysidro Health, every service is interconnected. According to Laura Andrews, providers can refer patients to any of the other services offered by their organization.
“Let’s say that a provider is seeing a family for pediatrics. If the provider notices the family is in distress, they will literally walk over to the Family Resource Center and do a warm hand-off to a coordinator. Then they will be set up with a social worker. But before they leave, they receive one or two bags of food. How beautiful is that? To come to the doctor’s office, to see that your doctor cares so much about you and your family. You’re not just a number in a visit. Your doctor walks you over and says, ‘Hey, you know we got you.’ You can see the relief.”
A Safe Place to Land
The team at San Ysidro Health also understands the benefit of addressing the most urgent issue first. Doing so allows patients to walk away knowing that they have a safe place to ask for help.
“Providing this bag of food and building that trust is really what allows that person to feel comfortable and to be able to answer questions honestly. Opening that door with some of those immediate needs, it allows them to trust us. We are telling them, ‘Hey, it’s hard. Let us help. Have you thought about talking to somebody?’ And then, we can walk you right down to our behavioral health services.
“Opening that door with some of those immediate needs, it allows them to trust us. We are telling them, ‘Hey, it’s hard. Let us help.”
“Because you can imagine, if you’re in distress, can you really look for work? If you have to feed your family, can you really focus? We can immediately provide them with food resources, no questions asked. Then, we can sit them down and see how else we can help them through our social services department. Then we communicate that back with the provider and let them know where we’re at with that patient. So we work hand and hand. It really is the whole person. ”
San Ysidro Health staff and volunteers at a drive-through food distribution
Meeting People Where They Are
San Ysidro Health offers behavioral health services at every one of its clinics throughout San Diego. In addition, they have some separate behavioral health services that target specific populations, including children and adolescents.
“Although COVID has caused a lot of need for behavioral health services, it also opened the door for people to be willing to say that they need behavioral health services,” Laura Andrews told us. “Before, it was such a taboo. I think a benefit of having these food resources along with behavioral health is that mood disorders are sometimes situational and triggered by situations and distress.”
To find food resources in your area, visit our Find Help page. To access behavioral health services, visit San Ysidro Health’s website.
