The Children’s Clinic: Serving Children & Their Families in Long Beach, California
Connection to Moving Health Care Upstream
The Children’s Clinic, “Serving Children & Their Families” (TCC), serves as the anchor organization for the Moving Health Care Upstream team in Long Beach, California. Their mission is to provide innovative, integrated, quality health care that will contribute to a healthy community. They tackle their mission by focusing on those most in need and by working with patients and the broader community as partners in promotion of individual’s overall well-being.
Our Community & Need
The focus of our efforts is both geographic and organizationally client-based. Geographically we are working with the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) through our four school-based health centers. Our organizational client-based work is being conducted throughout the Greater Long Beach service area in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services (LBDHHS), in the City of Long Beach. This area represents some of the most impoverished zip codes in Long Beach – there are 40 census tracts in our service area that are designated as Medically Underserved Areas – with a target population that is ethnically diverse at 76% Latino, 12% African-American, 4% Asian (primarily Cambodian), 3% White, 1% American Indian/Alaskan Native, 1% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and 3% other races and ethnicities.
TCC’s upstream work involves refining, integrating, expanding, and systematizing clinical and community-based pathways that go upstream and address social determinants of health. For this project, we are particularly interested in addressing social isolation and food insecurity, which impact TCC patients and their families as well as the community at large. It is our hope to be able to share the project, including resources and lessons learned, with others and to effect policy changes at the state and local levels.
Our Solution
Community partnerships that are patient-centered are essential to our work with Moving Health Care Upstream because they not only help us reach the priority population but help 1) engage residents to act in anticipation of future needs or changes in their health and wellbeing, 2) encourage community partners to respond in a helpful way to patient priorities and concerns, and 3) create sustainable partnerships between patients and community partners. Our efforts in partnership with LBUSD and LBDHHS address food insecurity and social isolation through identifying and engaging patients without a medical home and linking them to our medical, behavioral, and supportive services. We also work to provide parent engagement, skill building and education classes that emphasize bonding and interaction between parent and child. Specific efforts include the following:
- CalFresh Enrollment: Raising awareness of the CalFresh program, assisting in enrollment and retention, and reducing barriers to enrollment among TCC patients and their families.
- Love Listen and Play: Parents and their children between the age of 18 months and 3 years learn to develop resiliency, connections, and safety by spending quality time together.
- Mindful Way to Stress Reduction: Learn a variety of strategies to reduce stress and build physical and mental health. Techniques include mindful breathing and movement, healthy eating, exercise, and positive thinking.
- Triple C: “Cool, Calm, and Collected”: Learn ways to stay cool under pressure by developing problem solving skills that improve relationships with friends, relatives, and partners.
Reflective Parenting: Learn ways to strengthen family connections with young children between the ages of 3 and 5 by observing, reflecting, and responding respectfully to children’s feelings and behaviors. The group lasts 12 weeks.
For More Information
If you would like more information about the upstream work happening in our community please contact Elisa Nicholas, MD, MSPH, Chief Executive Officer at The Children’s Clinic, at enicholas@thechildrensclinic.org or Jennifer Ponce, MPH, Director of Special Projects, at jponce@thechildrensclinic.org.
Please also see our social media for more information:
