Two hours into her daily shift as a crisis line counselor, Maria received a chat message from a desperate 12-year-old girl. Anxious, depressed and alone, Janna had swallowed a bottle of her mom’s prescription medicine but regretted it 15 minutes later. Maria quickly and calmly developed a rapport with Janna, gained her trust and sent help to Janna’s home. A short time later, Janna was found on the bedroom floor barely conscious, her cell phone lying next to her.

Didi Hirsch saved Janna’s life.

About Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services

Since 1942, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services has saved and transformed the lives of children, adults, and families through world-class, whole-person mental health care and suicide prevention, including where discrimination and injustice limit access. Today, they operate from 10 locations and 100 schools in Los Angeles, Culver City, Inglewood, Pacoima, Glendale and Santa Ana, serving over 153,000 individuals each year. Their goal is to erase the stigma associated with mental illness and suicide. They have helped erase stigma by providing local and national interviews appearing in over 1,100 print/online/TV/radio outlets over the past few years.

Didi Hirsch envisions the day when treatment for mental health and substance use is held in the same regard as all other health care; when talking about mental illness and suicide is no longer taboo; and when treatment is available to all at the first sign of illness.

Over the past three years alone, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services has provided quality behavioral health services to over 365,000 adults, youth, and children from underserved communities throughout Southern California. Armed with over 540 staff and 220 volunteers, they have provided integrated mental and physical health care, substance use disorder services, and suicide prevention services. They work with individuals across the lifespan, beginning with a special Zero to Five program for at-risk families with young children. Didi Hirsch also operates two of the four Crisis Residential Treatment programs in Los Angeles County, which are short-term residential programs for men and women in psychiatric crisis—many of whom are homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless. They also provide drug and alcohol-related prevention and treatment services for teens and adults through both outpatient services and a residential treatment program for women.

The Didi Hirsch Suicide Prevention Center, the first of its kind in the nation, has helped people contemplating suicide or grieving the loss of a loved one to suicide since 1958. It serves as a model for suicide prevention centers across the globe. The Suicide Prevention Center offers training in the most effective lifesaving interventions, crisis services to save lives, counseling to support recovery from trauma, and research to further explore the causes and prevention of suicidal behavior.

Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services in Southern California 

Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services is one of the original members of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. This network of over 159 accredited suicide crisis lines in the U.S. connects callers to the closest line or links them to another line if the first is busy or down. They operate the official crisis line in five Southern California counties—Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Ventura. Didi Hirsch is one of only three centers in the country with 24/7 Spanish-language services and one of three core centers for the Disaster Distress Helpline. They also offer online emotional support via chat. In greater Los Angeles they back-up the Teen Line during the 20 hours each day when teens are not answering calls to their peers. They also have a dedicated hotline for Los Angeles Unified School District employees and their families and have a 24/7 ‘HEARME’ text option for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

Didi Hirsch and Exym Mental Health EHR Software

Didi Hirsch has been an Exym customer since 2019. They use the core software as well as the analytics, residential, and substance use modules. Kristine Santoro, Vice President of Quality and Innovation at Didi Hirsch said of Exym “The analytics module has been life-changing in adding value to data and decision-making within our organization. We also utilize the Substance Use and Residential modules, which has allowed us to use Exym to handle our myriad of services and seamlessly transition between our services all on one platform.” 

Exym is proud to support agencies like Didi Hirsch by giving our customers the freedom to focus on care. If you would like to support Didi Hirsch and the important work they’re doing in Southern California, click below.

Click Here to Support Didi Hirsch!

Exym is a comprehensive EHR software solution designed specifically for behavioral health agencies. Trusted for 20+ years, our intuitive and customizable software empowers providers to improve client outcomes, manage revenue cycles, and increase agency efficiency. Exym allows you to spend more time on what matters most- the clients in your care.

For more information on how our software collaborates with agencies like yours to enhance efficiency and create successful programs, take a look at our Exym Analytics page, Residential Providers page, or Substance Use Providers page.