ImCal was awarded Mental Health Block Grant funding to be used in fiscal year 21.  Due to a recent increase in suicide and overdose concerns locally and nationally, this funding was used for a Suicide and Overdose Prevention Campaign. The campaign used digital outreach to share suicide and overdose prevention messaging with young people and families in the community.  Because traditional advertising, such as television PSAs, billboards, and the like, are not as effective with the younger demographic, this campaign will use video and social media platforms to reach the youth and young adults in our SWLA communities.  The media platforms are YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok.  TikTok. Once a person clicks on the ad, they are sent to a landing page for information on suicide and crisis resources.  In the first six months of the campaign, there have been 870.575 impressions on Google, 1,199,210 impressions on Snapchat, and 23,840 impressions on TikTok.

Pete is fully equipped to ensure accessibility and provision of an array of medical and behavioral health services to include prevention, screening, crisis response and treatment intervention. In partnership with Region V Office of Public Health, Pete is also available for use for public health community outreach related to infectious disease testing and vaccinations, HIV & STD testing, education and counseling, opioid use prevention and treatment, including the dissemination of NARCAN.

Additionally, Pete will be used to provide prevention and treatment services to individuals residing in rural areas, with limited transportation options, the homeless population, and post-disaster response. ImCal’s Mobile Emergency Response and Outreach Unit was named for Pete Manena, who served as the Office for Addictive Disorders Regional Administrator for the SWLA Community prior to his retirement in 2002.