News & Insights

Supporters of the California Parent and Youth Helpline are pleading with lawmakers to restore its funding after Gov. Gavin Newsom left it out of his May budget proposal, released May 14.

Last year, lawmakers initially approved the funding but cut it at the last minute. Parents Anonymous, which runs the helpline, is asking the legislature to commit $5 million a year for the next three years.

Lisa Pion-Berlin, president and CEO of Parents Anonymous, which runs the helpline, said the loss of state funding means fewer counselors manning the phones and longer wait times.

“We have a 40% abandonment rate,” Pion-Berlin pointed out. “That means that 40% of the Californians who try to call us, text us, or live chat, they abandon the call or the text because they’re holding too long because we don’t have the capacity to respond to them.”

People can still call the National Parent Youth Helpline at 855-427-2736, which gets $2 million a year in federal funds and can go to the hotline’s website. Trained counselors guide families as they confront a wide range of crises, including bullying, domestic violence and thoughts of suicide. Since 2020, the helpline has supported almost 130,000 callers and made close to 90,000 referrals.

Pion-Berlin argued the state should consider good mental health and emotional support to be a basic need.

“This program works,” Pion-Berlin asserted. “It’s the only helpline that’s proven that from the beginning to the end of the call, 85% of the callers feel more positive, more hopeful and have a solution-focused attitude.”

The program no longer offers online support groups but funds from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health support in-person therapy. The legislature has until June 15 to approve a balanced budget.

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U.S. Rep. Norma Torres introduced the National Parent & Youth Helpline Act on Friday which establishes support and prevention, ensuring that parents, caregivers, children and youth have access to timely, trusted assistance to navigate challenges.

Dr. Lisa Pion-Berlin joined CBS Los Angeles this morning to talk about the bill. View the segment below.

If you are interested in being an Endorser of the bill, contact Dr. Lisa Pion-Berlin.

Dr. Lisa Pion-Berlin, CEO of Parents Anonymous, Inc. joins Amber Freeman, host of Bloom, to discuss ways in which people can become less reliant on our phones in order to increase connection.

Families are not just managing screen time anymore. We are living in a digital-first world where social media never sleeps, AI is becoming part of school and work, and a phone can quietly replace real connection at home. Many parents tell me they feel like they are competing with devices for their child’s attention, while also feeling pulled by their own notifications, work messages and endless to-do lists.

We’re not aiming to “win” our family in 2026 against technology. We’re aiming to establish healthy home culture where relationships come first and tech knows its place. We have collectively lost our way, where the priority is human connection.

Here are realistic ways to come together as a family while balancing the digital push and pull of everyday life.

Start with phone-free micro-moments

Don’t try to fix everything at once. Most families find this turns into month one “going cold turkey” that fizzles out by week two. Focus on daily phone-free micro-moments, such as:

• The first 10 minutes after your child gets home from school. Talk about something important that happened—funny or serious.
• No phones for everyone at dinner.
• The last 10 minutes before bedtime.
• During the car ride to extra-curricular activities.

Read the full article on Psychreg

Leaders from the California Parent and Youth Helpline are in Sacramento today asking policymakers to restore the program’s funding, after the Governor’s January budget proposal was released.

The helpline has helped millions of Californians since it started in 2020 but last year, the state cut funding at the last minute.

Lisa Pion-Berlin, president and CEO of the nonprofit Parents Anonymous, which runs the helpline, said they had to lay off all their counselors dedicated to California.

“The impact has been that 40% of the callers, we cannot reach,” Pion-Berlin explained. “We cannot meet the demand from the Californians who call us. We cannot. We are calling people back as fast as we can, but we have a very high abandonment rate because we don’t have the staffing we had to cover separately, Californians.”

Read the full article on Public News Service

Are you concerned about your child’s relationship with social media? Feeling lost on how to set healthy boundaries or support their mental health in today’s digital world? You’re not alone!

Watch this episode to get practical, real-life tips for handling your child’s social media use without constant worry or power struggles. Learn what to pay attention to, how to set limits that don’t turn into daily fights, and how to keep conversations open even when your child shuts down. You’ll leave this episode with a clearer sense of when to step in, when to give space, and where to turn if you need extra support.

In this eye-opening episode of M.E.S.H., host Pamela Brewer sits down with Dr. Lisa Pion-Berlin, CEO of Parents Anonymous, licensed hypnotherapist, and social worker. Dr. Lisa shares invaluable insights on parenting in the age of technology—covering everything from how to know if your child is using social media too much, building strong relationships with teens, handling pushback on setting limits, and ways to recognize when your child needs more help.

Key Topics Covered:

✔️ How to set healthy social media limits without constant pushback

✔️ Signs to watch for if social media is affecting your child’s mood, behavior, or well-being

✔️ Ways to keep communication open and build trust—even during tough conversations

✔️ Free, confidential support and mental health resources available through Parents Anonymous

If your teen is constantly FaceTiming, group-chatting, gaming with friends, and replying to 100+ Snap streaks a day, “lonely” might be the last word you’d use to describe them. But research shows otherwise: Gen Z — the most digitally connected generation in history — is also the loneliest.

According to GWI’s global survey, “Eight in 10 Gen Z respondents (80%) agree they’ve felt lonely in the past 12 months,” and strikingly, “The most connected generation in history is also the loneliest.” The CDC reports that “4 in 10 students had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness,” a sign that emotional disconnection is becoming more common — even among teens who appear socially active.

Experts see it every day. Licensed counselor Sarah Whitmire, LPC-S, explains that “the lack of face-to-face interaction, which is crucial for building empathy and emotional bonds, leaves many teens feeling isolated despite being constantly connected.”Report ad

And social media heightens the pressure. As Dr. Lisa Pion-Berlin, ACSW, ACHT and CEO of Parents Anonymous, told us, “Social media creates a platform for comparison — teens view idealized representations of others’ lives, which makes them feel isolated and inadequate.”

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It was fitting that Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, with its trauma center that has seen so many victims of gun violence over the years, served as the starting point for the October 9 Pomona Peace Walk.

The march, hosted by House of Ruth, the City of Pomona, Project Hope California, and others, drew dozens for the 1.1-mile route from the hospital to House of Ruth’s outreach office at 599 N. Main St., Pomona.

Among them was Sonja Gonzales from Parents Anonymous, who carried a poster with photos of Jeannette Pacheco, a victim of gun violence.

“Her life was taken by her partner,” Gonzales said. “He shot and killed her in the streets of Pomona on Mission, by the car wash.” The date on Gonzales’s poster was May 23, 2024. “She was my sober living sister. I was in recovery with her. And unfortunately, she went back to a disease, and she lost her life.”

Gonzales said she keeps Pacheco’s memory alive with the work she does at Parents Anonymous, a Claremont nonprofit that offers family strengthening programs.

“I get to help people every day that are in the same shoes that her and I were in,” Gonzales said. “I just get to strive and push forward, to know that her life isn’t in vain. She didn’t die in vain because I get to keep her memory alive with every person that I help not end up like her.”

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Parents Anonymous, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting parents, children and youth, recently celebrated the grand opening of its new San Fernando Valley Well-Being Center in Van Nuys. The ribbon-cutting event welcomed community members, representatives of local dignitaries and parent advocates for an evening of food, family-friendly activities and connection.

The new Center expands no-cost, evidence-based mental health services across Los Angeles County. Families will have access to weekly Parents Anonymous Adult, Children & Youth Groups that are trauma-informed and built on personal strengths, along with individual and family therapy sessions, tailored referrals and resource navigation, and 24/7 crisis intervention through the National Parent & Youth Helpline.

After the ceremony, guests had the opportunity to tour the new facility, meet staff and learn more about how the Center will serve as a hub for connection, healing and empowerment – backed by more than 56 years of Parents Anonymous expertise.

“Families in the San Fernando Valley deserve access to meaningful support close to home,” said Dr. Lisa Pion-Berlin, president & CEO of Parents Anonymous. “This new Center builds on more than five decades of evidence-based work and ensures that parents and youth in this community can find connection, compassion and healing when they need it most.”

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Policy decisions on the state and federal levels are creating chaos for the California-based National Parent and Youth Helpline, a service that connects callers in emotional distress to trained counselors. California cut $3 million for the helpline out of the state budget this past June, after supporting the program since its inception in 2020.

Lisa Pion-Berlin, president and CEO of Parents Anonymous, the nonprofit organization that runs the helpline, said the cuts came at a particularly bad time, because calls to the helpline doubled between August and September.

“So, we know the demand is increasing, but our capacity is not increasing, which means one thing – our abandonment rate goes up,” she said. “We can’t answer fast enough, we can’t respond fast enough because we don’t have the staff to do that. People who leave us messages, we call them back. We have people who are in crisis who, we call them back, several times.”

Pion-Berlin added that cuts to SNAP and Medicaid in the Republican tax-cut-and-spending bill passed this summer will hurt struggling families. She adds she worries that the administration will use the government shutdown as an excuse to cut social service programs like the helpline, which receives $2 million a year in federal funds.

In July, the Trump administration pulled the plug on the specialized counseling for LGBTQ people that used to be available on the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Pion-Berlin added that, along with other federal policy changes, is causing emotional turmoil.

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