As a recipient of grants from the ARPA Fund (American Rescue Plan Act) through Inland Empire Community Foundation, Inland Caregiver Resource Center (ICRC) made strides with increasing referrals and outreach efforts to underserved communities in Riverside County.
“After the pandemic, people were still kind of reluctant to come out, especially our clients, caregivers, and older adults,” said Carmen Estrada, Executive Director of ICRC. “A lot of our caregivers are still wary of being out too much because of whatever they may bring back to the person that they’re caring for.
“Trying to get them to transition to start doing in-person services was a bit of a challenge,” she added.
That required enhanced outreach efforts from ICRC, which resulted in hiring an additional intake specialist and education outreach coordinator.
“We were happy to offer more outreach activities, and additional face-to-face services, as well as virtual efforts to get people connected to our services, particularly our mental health services and caregiver support services,” Estrada said. “That allowed us to expand our mental health services.”
To that end, the organization has two key programs: Pearl’s Program, which encourages active and rewarding lives of seniors, and Thrive, which is a cognitive behavioral therapy program for older adults experiencing later-life depression.
“When the grant started, we were only providing those services in Riverside County,” Estrada noted. “The grant allowed us to provide more of those services agency-wide. Because they’ve been successful, we are now able to expand those programs in San Bernardino County.”
Pearls is an evidence-based approach created to reduce depressive symptoms and improve the quality of life for seniors. The program enables older adults to establish long-term changes that allow them to enjoy a more active and rewarding life.
Meanwhile, the Thrive program uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help reduce depressive symptoms and improve overall quality of life. Another evidence-based approach, it offers older adults the ability to focus on long-term changes in which they can “thrive.”
Behavioral health matters have come to the fore in the last decade, and Estrada believes ICRC is meeting those challenges head-on.
“When it comes to mental health, people don’t want to say ‘depression,’ so we have to do outreach in more creative ways, and talk about feelings,” she said. “You know, things like, ‘Are you feeling isolated? Are you not going out as much? Do you not like doing things you used to do before?”
“Because there’s still that stigma with mental health,” she added.
The organization also changed its brochures, updated marketing material, and retrained staff to steer away from using the term “mental health,” replacing it with “behavioral health.”
“It’s a more friendly term,” Estrada said. “And it’s better accepted in the community when we’re talking about behavioral health and social support services instead of mental health, depression, and anxiety—all the terms that people, our older adults and our caregivers, connect to and once had been thought of as ‘crazy’ or ‘senile.’”
Estrada noted the importance of being creative and understanding their audience and their needs.
Support for the entire family is key; however, ICRC is keen on encouraging caregivers who care for seniors, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and those who can no longer care for themselves.
“We make it a point to make sure we train our staff to meet clients where they’re at, and also to consider past traumas that clients may have experienced,” Estrada said. “And to be kind.”
Learn more at inlandcaregivers.org.
This story originally appeared in the Press Enterprise, May 2025.
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