Didi Hirsch Psychiatric Service

Didi Hirsch provides compassionate mental health, substance use, and suicide prevention services to individuals and families, especially in communities where discrimination and injustice limit access.

Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services has improved the lives of vulnerable and underserved community members through quality behavioral health care since 1942. As the first nonprofit community mental health clinic in Los Angeles, we began as a volunteer-run agency operating out of a single site. Didi Hirsch now provides services at 77 schools and 9 community oriented locations throughout Los Angeles and Orange County. One of the first federally designated Community Mental Health Centers and operator of the nation’s first-ever Suicide Prevention Center, we ensure that all individuals have the opportunity to support their mental health.

Our suicide prevention services include 24/7 crisis lines for anyone suffering an acute mental health emergency or worried about a loved one. We provide education, information, support, referral and follow-up care for survivors of suicide attempts and those who have lost loved ones to suicide. We also provide trainings and outreach to educate clinicians, first responders, medical providers and caregivers how to recognize and respond to the signs of suicide.

Our outpatient mental health programs include adult and family clinical services, school-based programs, substance use treatment, and community outreach and education. We treat the whole-person, connecting clients to community resources for physical health care, housing, employment, and in-home support services.

Adults with acute mental health issues can access our crisis residential treatment program. This short-term alternative to psychiatric hospitalization helps clients stabilize, develop new skills, form relapse prevention plans, and connect with community treatment and support. We also have a residential treatment program for women struggling with substance use. In this program, young children can live with their moms, maintaining family relationships.

In 2024, Didi Hirsch responded to over 229,000 calls, chats, and texts on our various crisis lines. This represents a 18% increase in volume over the previous year, due in large part to the growing mental health crisis and increased awareness of our services. The California Department of Health Care Services chose Didi Hirsch to lead statewide planning and implementation for 988 and we successfully worked with crisis centers across the state on workforce expansion, training, and capacity development in preparation for the increased contacts. We answer calls, chats, and texts in English, Spanish, and Korean . We also operate Teen Line, a hotline where trained teens provide emotional support to their peers across the country.

We trained over 5,600 individuals in how to recognize and respond to the warning signs of suicide, with many engagements specifically tailored to youth and communities of color. To further this work, we offer online trainings through our Didi Hirsch Academy for teens, educators, parents, and mental health professionals.

Lastly, our Center is invested in the long-term recovery of residents impacted by the 2025 Southern California wildfires. We offer free therapy sessions and training services to individuals affected by the crisis, including first responders and displaced individuals currently living in Orange County. Our services help survivors manage trauma, grief, and burnout by improving their resilience, coping skills, and self-care techniques.

This year, we hope to build upon our successes by furthering the reach of our suicide prevention services throughout Orange County. One goal is to enroll more residents from communities with limited access to mental health care (ex., youth, low-income, or communities of color) into our suicide counseling services . We also plan on hosting additional support groups for specific populations, such as healthcare workers and first responders. A third goal is to continue recruitment and retention efforts across our agency to maintain a diverse workforce that is representative of the community we serve.

While our most significant source of operating revenue is government contracts and grants, our clients often have health-related needs beyond the scope of our contracts. As a result, we must turn to the private sector to help us deliver our above-and-beyond services, pilot and scale new innovations, and invest in the necessary infrastructure to sustain and expand our efforts. This strategic funding mix ensures we can swiftly adapt our interventions to serve evolving needs among our community and workforce.

One example of these efforts that leverage private funding is our youth-serving work. Across our programs, we are expanding our mental health prevention and intervention services to respond to the growing youth mental health crisis. Youth represent a growing share of our clients so we are increasing programming for teens and young adults through services such as our new Transition-Aged Youth (TAY) Wellness Center in Glendale and Teen Line – which are both entirely privately funded.

Los Angeles County
Orange County

When I started at Didi Hirsch 25 years ago, I was drawn to the individual impact we were making each day. That motivation remains, especially as demand for our services continues to increase and we grow to meet that need. It roots us in our purpose. We remain in the throes of a mental health crisis. Suicide rates have increased, especially among our youth. Suicide is now the third leading cause of death among 14- to 18-year-olds.

Last year, over 270,000 people received transformative mental health and suicide prevention services through Didi Hirsch. That’s a 16% increase from 2023. Many of those who reach out to us for help are in the midst of an urgent mental health crisis and our crisis center has been busier than ever. On our crisis lines, last year alone we had a 29% increase in calls and a 10% increase in texts and chats.

We must meet this moment as we always have. Did Hirsch will continue to innovate and create the future we know is possible with your support.

When we came on as the new co-chairs of the Board of Directors in 2023, we knew Didi Hirsch was at a pivotal moment. New data released by the CDC shows an alarming rise in suicide rates in the United States, with nearly 50,000 deaths in 2022. It is easy to feel hopeless and discouraged by the news.

But Didi Hirsch has never shied away from a challenge.

In the aftermath of the Great Depression, our founders stepped up and established the first community mental health center in Los Angeles. Didi Hirsch and our programs have been on the front lines of innovative mental health solutions ever since – establishing the first suicide prevention center in the nation, leading a peer-led hotline for teens, pioneering support groups for survivors of suicide loss, and serving as a founding member of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Today, in a time where stigma has been reduced but challenges to accessing mental healthcare persist, we know Didi Hirsch is perfectly positioned to meet this moment.

Nowhere is our mission more urgent than in our work with young people. We understand that if we want to make an impact with youth, we need to meet them where they are – both literally and figuratively. Didi Hirsch is expanding our texting capabilities with our crisis lines, bringing our suicide prevention trainings to schools, and opened our first drop-in center for teens and young adults, Our Third Place, in early 2024.

Didi Hirsch’s mission feels very personal to us as we both lost our dad to suicide. Since we provide mental health, suicide prevention, and substance use services for all ages, we see firsthand the impact that early intervention can make on the trajectory of an individual’s life and the health of entire families and communities.