In partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Office of Violence Prevention (OVP) and the Department of Health Services (DHS), One Degree is enhancing its digital referral platform to support a Youth Suicide Prevention Program (YSPP). This urgent and innovative collaboration is designed to better connect youth and families to the suicide-related mental health and social services they need to recover from crisis. 

Working Together to Improve Care Coordination

Each week, emergency departments across LA County see approximately 250 youth suicide-related visits. These are not just numbers—they represent children, teens, and families navigating deep pain and uncertainty. While immediate clinical care is essential, so is follow-up support: access to therapy, mental health counseling, social services and family care.

That’s where this collaboration comes in.

Rather than build a new suicide-related referral platform from scratch — as often happens — the County is leveraging a platform already in use at DHS. Since 2021, One Degree’s enterprise referral system has been in active use by DHS as the social service referral system of record for the ACEs-LA Network of Care. This means that the people and relationships that have made the ACEs-LA initiative so successful, will be in a position to strengthen and support this program at key DHS facilities including; Los Angeles General Medical Center, Harbor-UCLA, and Olive View Medical Center. By extending this trusted solution to support the YSPP, the initiative can move faster and go further, reaching more kids and families in need. 

What This Partnership Makes Possible

The newly enhanced platform will provide emergency department staff with a digital referral solution to connect youth and families in crisis to services that support healing and stability. Through this partnership, we will:

1. Improve access to care by streamlining referrals to mental health and wraparound services
   
2. Enable real-time coordination between health and social service providers
   
3. Ensure accountability with better referral management and follow-up tracking
   
4. Support staff workflows with a user-friendly system designed for frontline use

This is not just a tech solution—it’s a care coordination model rooted in local relationships and trust. 

A Scalable, Impact-Driven Solution

One Degree’s platform is HIPAA- and SOC 2-compliant and built with the flexibility needed to support public systems at scale. It offers:

1. A comprehensive resource directory tailored to LA County
   
2. Built-in communication tools for seamless coordination
   
3. Tracking and reporting capabilities to evaluate engagement and impact
   
4. A customizable interface to align with program-specific goals

By underwriting the system modifications and licensing needed for this pilot, the County is making a bold, thoughtful investment in infrastructure that can grow over time, supporting not only suicide prevention but broader youth mental health and wellness initiatives.

Building the Future of Youth Mental Health Support—Together

We believe that technology can and should be used to break down barriers to care, not add more layers of complexity. Through this collaboration, we are helping to build a more responsive, interconnected safety net that ensures no young person falls through the cracks.

We are proud to be working with the Office of Violence Prevention, the Department of Health Services, ACEs-LA, and all the frontline providers who are working every day to support youth with care and compassion. This thoughtful collaboration is a step toward a more connected human-centered social service delivery network for LA. 

If you are interested in supporting this work or learning more about this collaboration, please reach out to greg@1degree.org.