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PAGE 58 they’re not doing so… 78% of the seniors who we serve live alone. If you think about that, that means that a minimum of 10 hours of their waking time is spent alone.” As mentioned, workforce challenges are closely tied to the need for additional mental health providers. This is related to structural factors including cost of living and the need to pay essential workers (i.e., those working in community mental health) a living wage. Further, more linguistically, racially, and culturally responsive service providers are needed, as detailed below. Service Provision, Awareness, and Navigation GENERALIZED SERVICE PROVISION Interviewees and focus group participants spoke at length about the need for a range of support services. Community members wanted a place where individuals could go to receive non-emergency support. One provider described this as a need for ‘generalized community assistance’: “There’s a part of our population that needs help, like even how to get your social security card, how to get a birth certificate, how to apply for driver’s license, just the general things that we don’t have one place to direct people to and support them with.” Other participants identified a need for generalized support for individuals who struggle with reading or writing. This is essential not only for helping community members understand and navigate health and human services, but also for assisting with daily living tasks. For example, one participant mentioned that some people find it challenging to read and understand directions for taking medication. SERVICE AWARENESS The Tri-Valley offers a substantial number of services to address various social determinants of health. However, community members noted a lack of awareness of these services and how to access them. One individual said “I know personally with me it’s kind of hard for me to comprehend… how to even begin the process of trying to find any type of information. You know, unless someone’s really pointing me in the direction I wouldn’t even know where to begin.” When asked for recommendations on how to improve human services in the Tri- Valley, another individual noted simply, “make sure community members know what services are available.” One participant spoke of researching community resources in preparation for the focus group: “I looked at a Tri-Valley website and there’s a lot of resources that I didn’t know about. There’s like a dozen that they show, like the churches that provide food, some provide showers, some will do their laundry for them. So I just looked in Livermore, because that’s my town. I think that is also getting that word out there for people, that they have some resources. Some of it may be communication, because how do you reach them?” A service provider also reflected this challenge, tying the lack of service awareness to a need for increased advertising funds for nonprofits: “There’s not enough designated funds for people to know the services that are provided…I was just having a conversation with a man an hour ago, who asked if the nonprofits tried to stay secret and small. And I was trying to explain to him capacity and priorities and all of that. So I would say funds for making people aware of the services (are needed).” Community members and nonprofit organization respondents acknowledged that cities, churches, and other entities made efforts to raise awareness of available services. However, they also said that there was widespread lack of awareness among people who needed them. SERVICE NAVIGATION The need for service and insurance navigation came up frequently within the topic of health care and mental health care. It also appeared as a general barrier to accessing human services, in particular for individuals with disabilities, the unhoused, immigrants and refugees, older adults, and non-English speakers and those for whom it is a second language. Persons in these last two groups have a distinct need for service navigation support from providers who are racially, culturally, and linguistically responsive. This also has implications for the nonprofit workforce. EASTERN ALAMEDA COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES NEEDS ASSESSMENTSS Page 116 of 554