�ձ���𳦲�����’s Mental Health Urgent Care (MHUC) — Perris in Riverside County opened in 2017 to help community members find relief from distress and access care to help maintain stability in their lives.

Recently, the staff at Perris were able to turn around a situation that started with a complaint into a success story for the staff and the person served.

In September, a family member and their loved one arrived at the MHUC for help and unfortunately had a negative interaction with a security guard there. The family member alerted ɫ��ɫ to this negative experience, and Administrator Evette Yanez immediately dealt with the situation and reassured the family member. In her interaction with the family member, Evette extended an apology for this interaction, and began a conversation around the needs of their loved one, encouraging them to come back to the MHUC as needed.

Through several weeks and rounds of communication, Evette learned more about the person needing services, their family situation, and the stresses that the family was going through. She patiently stayed in communication with the family, reassuring them often, offering hope and resources as needed, and always responding with kindness, empathy, and authenticity.

This family went through several rounds of attempting to receive services from local area agencies and hospitals. Through her ongoing communication with the family, Evette continued to offer support and services — not only encouraging them to come to the MHUC, but just reaching out to find out how things were going and if the person had received the services they needed. The conversation continued through detailed emails of appointments, being turned away from services, waiting lists, symptoms — all the struggles of a family member attempting to help their loved one.

Eventually, through patience and dedication to the conversation and relationship-building, Evette was able to reassure the family to come back to the MHUC for services. She provided a detailed explanation of the wait times, services that would be provided, what to expect, and what might happen next. Even through the admission process, Evette stayed in contact with the family, providing information and reassurance at every step.

And what happened next?

After the person had been admitted and received the care they needed, Evette received several follow-up notes:

“I just want to say thank you so much. “Rick” completed the assessment and his meds were called into the pharmacy. He said he liked it because everyone was nice to him. Huge thanks to you and your staff. Thank you again so much for helping us through all of this. He kept saying he wanted to go back, so that’s a good thing. Again thank you for everything.”

This is a huge win for this family and the entire team at the MHUC! The team was also dealing with a power outage at the time, and continued to provide excellent customer service and client care throughout these extra difficulties.

Hooray and congratulations to the whole team. Such a wonderful success story about the power of connection and empathy!