The Focus

September 25th, 2025

Announcements:

Important Medi-Cal Eligibility Changes Coming January 1st
Updated FHSP UID Packet for Scattered Sites Placements
LA HAT Trainings Are Available! - Sign Up Today!
Learn More and Attend Brilliant Corners FHSP Virtual Office Hours
Vacancies at Metro @ Buckingham for Voucher Holders 62+ - Available for Immediate Occupancy
Master Leasing Open House Flower St. DTLA Showing 2x Weekly

FOCUS OF THE MONTH

Mental Health Care Navigation

Mental health (MH) can shift throughout a person’s life in response to stress, trauma, relationships, and available supports. ICMS plays a vital role in assessing MH functioning and connecting participants to care, including programs like HSSP.

Interventions that support mental health care include psychotherapy, medication, peer support, emotional support animals, caregiving, short-term hospitalization, care navigation, and care team collaboration.

To support this work, we’ve created a new Mental Health Care Navigation Tip Sheet to help guide ICMS in assessment, referral, and safe response.

What's Inside the new tip sheet?

Mental Health Continuum Model
Key Interventions and Supports
Crisis Response Guidance
Roadmap to HSSP and Other MH Services

We hope this tip sheet helps you to continue making a positive impact in participants' lives! Thank you for the outstanding work you do every day!

View the new tip sheet >

Let us know what you think! >

Training Resources:

Access HFH Trainings for ICMS

New FY 25-26 Program Guide for ICMS

The newest annual release is now available!

on your ICMS graduations in August!

A Community of Friends
Coalition for Responsible Community Development
Good Shepherd Center
Housing Works
LA Family Housing
Mental Health America, Antelope Valley
New Directions
PATH
Penny Lane

SHARE!
SRO Housing
Step Up on Second
The Good Seed
The People Concern
Upward Bound House
Venice Community Housing
Watts Labor Community Action Committee
Wellnest Emotional Health and Wellness

Upcoming Office Hours

**please note, some dates may be subject to change due to holidays**

Bring all your CHAMP questions to one of our upcoming sessions. We welcome repeat visitors!

Tues @ 9:30AM & 1PM: Sept. 30th

Intended as a safe space for all service providers to access guidance on solving problems and navigating cases.

Wed @ 11AM

Hosted by Brilliant Corners Fridays at 10am. Covers how to access move-in and general assistance funds.

Fri @ 10AM: Sept. 26th

Available every other Wednesday from 10am - 11am. Provides overview of eligibility and referral process.

Every other Wed @ 10AM

Available every 2nd Wednesday of the month. Provides support in submitting completed referrals.

Second Wed @ 11AM

Available for ICMS agencies working with Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) & Family Unification Program (FUP) housing resources.

LACDA/HACLA FYI/FUP Programs:

Second Wed @ 11AM

Small PHAs: Inglewood, Culver City, Pasadena:

Fourth Wed @ 11AM

ICMS Snapshot Updates

A new indicator was added to the "Care Team" category in the Participant Level Summary tab.

The additional indicator added includes:

Caregiver - Indicates whether the ICMS participant is actively enrolled in a caregiving program. This is intended to eventually reference both IHSS and IHCG enrollment records, but currently only references IHCG enrollment records due to information access limitations. If the cell is blank, it indicates that either the participant is not actively enrolled in in caregiving, or enrollment information is not being detected in available records, or there is not adequate sharing consent in CHAMP to share this information out. If there is adequate sharing consent in CHAMP and the participant is actively enrolled in a caregiving program according to available records, the cell will display the caregiving program information.

A new indicator was added to the "Alerts" category in the Participant Level Summary tab.

The additional indicator added includes:

Health Care Action Step Needed? - Indicates whether the ICMS participant is in need of a high priority health care action step from ICMS based on currently available information. If the cell is blank, it indicates that either the participant is not necessarily in immediate need of a high priority health care action step from ICMS according to available records, or there is not adequate sharing consent in CHAMP to share this information out. If there is adequate sharing consent in CHAMP and the participant is in immediate need of a high priority health care action step from ICMS, the specific action step needed will be displayed. There is currently only one possible health care action step being displayed for this data point: "TOC Visit Needed." The cell will display TOC Visit Needed if there is a record of an emergency department or inpatient visit within the past two weeks, but no "ICMS TOC Visit" Service recorded in CHAMP. The data cell also contains a clickable link to the Transitions of Care landing page within the ICMS Information Center to provide the most currently available guidance on this area of ICMS.

Previous Updates >

AFFIRMATION OF THE MONTH

#MentalHealthAwareness

I choose progress over perfection and celebrate small steps forward.

Plug in to Our Performance Improvement Ecosystem

ICMS Program Information Center

ICMS Program Glossary

Guides and Cheat Sheets

Trainings, Office Hours, Workshops

Feedback Form

The Focus﻿