Legacy Fund for Mental Health

The entire Sonoma County community has been deeply impacted by the tragic incident at Santa Rosa’s Montgomery High School on March 1st that resulted in a 16-year-old student being fatally stabbed. At Montgomery High School and high schools throughout Sonoma County, there is a dire need for mental health support for students, teachers, staff, and families right now. Lomi is committed to supporting those affected by the tragedy by providing mental health support to help them recover from this traumatic event and heal.

Lomi has been in conversation directly with the counseling team at Montgomery High School to help address the gaps in mental health care needed in the aftermath of this crisis. We are currently working on bringing Lomi therapists to the school’s campus to offer drop-in sessions and facilitated debrief support groups for students, teachers, and administrative staff. The Montgomery counselor has shared that she is anticipating a need for mental health services over the course of the next several months, especially during the summertime when school is out of session.

Lomi’s Legacy Fund for Mental Health is a long-standing program that provides free short-term counseling for community members impacted by a crisis. Lomi has activated this fund several times throughout the last 30 years. More recently, it was used to support fire survivors during the aftermath of multiple wildfires (1,017 free sessions provided), youth impacted by the wildfires (115 free sessions provided), individuals who were struggling during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic and could not afford care (837 free sessions provided), and unhoused and low-income community members as they navigated a time of crisis (284 free sessions provided). Since 2017, Lomi has provided 2,253 free crisis counseling sessions to Sonoma County community members in need through our Legacy Fund for Mental Health.

Tragic loss and the resulting trauma are difficult. People need a safe place to be seen and heard, skills for calming when overstimulated, orienting to help see that someone is not in immediate danger, and self-care skills for tending the nervous system. Besides the trauma aspect, we have the tragic loss aspect, which may have combinations of sadness, anger, and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.

We are seeking to raise $50,000 to offer free sessions at our clinic site and on-campus when needed to those impacted by this tragedy at Montgomery High School. This amount of funding would allow us to offer ten one-on-one therapy sessions for 45 students, families, and those immediately affected by this tragedy for a total of 450 counseling sessions to be carried out over the course of six months. Clients will work with the same therapist weekly. Many of these clients will be in need of long-term therapy beyond ten sessions. However, the experience of getting support and a new perspective with the help of brief psychotherapy can be greatly beneficial and have long-term effects. Brief therapy can address immediate health and safety needs and begin the process of self-care. Adequate referrals are always given for further psychological support, and our site is always an option for therapy in the future.