Where Coachella Valley families can turn during a youth mental health crisis

Raymond Kalra

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – A longtime emergency shelter for troubled and at-risk youth in the Coachella Valley is closed, raising questions about what resources remain for young people who need mental health support or simply a safe place to go.

Safe House of the Desert in Thousand Palms provided emergency shelter and support services for youth ages 11 to 17. Operation SafeHouse has said the location closed because of insufficient funding. Its Riverside facility remains open and avaliable.

News Channel 3 made multiple attempts Tuesday to contact Operation SafeHouse seeking additional information about the closure, what resources are currently being provided to Coachella Valley youth and whether there are plans to restore shelter services in the eastern part of Riverside County. Those requests were not returned as of Tuesday evening.

What happens if a young person needs help now?

The closure does not mean mental and behavioral health resources are unavailable in the Coachella Valley, but local law enforcement says those resources do not necessarily fill the same role as a youth shelter.

Palm Springs Police Public Information Officer Capt. Gustavo Araiza said the department works with its Community Behavioral Assessment Team, or CBAT, when officers encounter someone experiencing a behavioral health crisis.

The program pairs an officer with a clinician connected to Riverside University Health System. The team can assess someone’s needs and work to connect that person with appropriate county services.

Araiza said the program was developed to serve the broader community, while Safe House served a more specific need for young people.

“This safe house was pretty specific to addressing the need for the youth. But we just thought as a community we needed that for everybody,” Araiza said.

Araiza said one potential gap involves young people who do not want to return home or are considered runaways.

“I think one of the gaps that we have, and it might not necessarily be on the mental health side, but it very well could kind of teeter in that area, is the individual that doesn’t want to go home and is now a runaway,” Araiza said. “So kind of having a safe haven for them to go to, because that’s one of the things that we did have in the past.”

988 offers another option during a mental health crisis

For someone experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis, another resource is the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Rebecca Zeitlin, Crisis Lines Clinical Director at Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center, said 988 is available to people of any age and is not limited to people considering suicide.

“So 988 is a great resource when someone’s experiencing either a mental health, emotional, substance use crisis or in need of support, intervention or help figuring out what to do,” Zeitlin said. “But we want to remind folks that you don’t have to wait for a situation to become an emergency.”

People can call or text 988 to reach a live crisis counselor. Zeitlin said counselors can listen to what is happening, assess safety and work with the caller to determine appropriate next steps.

The service can also help someone who is concerned about a friend, child or family member and doesn’t know how to approach the situation.

Zeitlin said one misconception is that contacting 988 automatically results in a law enforcement response. She said that is not the case.

For situations requiring an immediate in-person response because of a medical or other emergency, 911 remains the appropriate number to call.

For emotional, mental health, substance use or suicidal crises, 988 can provide crisis support around the clock.

“Nobody has to deal with that alone,” Zeitlin said.

Questions remain about youth shelter services

While 988 and local behavioral health teams can provide crisis intervention and connections to care, those services are different from the emergency shelter once available to youth at Safe House of the Desert.

News Channel 3 is continuing to seek answers from Operation SafeHouse about the closure of its Thousand Palms facility, its current services for Coachella Valley youth, and whether there are plans to restore a youth emergency shelter in the area.

Operation SafeHouse continues to operate a location in Riverside.

News Channel 3 will update this story if Operation SafeHouse responds

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