New tool will help integrate schools and health centers

Dr. Kenny Ferenchak presented “School-Based Health Integration with Schools” at The L.A. Trust’s Learning Collaborative December 2. 

A new tool to measure the integration of school-based health centers with their schools was presented at The L.A. Trust’s Wellness Network Learning Collaborative December 2. More than 50 representatives from Los Angeles Unified, Wellness Center operators and The L.A. Trust attended the online event. 

“The L.A. Trust believes there’s a strong correlation between student health and student achievement, and school-based health centers are key,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health, which helped support the research. 

“Integration of health centers with schools adds an extra element,” said Dr. Kenny Ferenchak, underscoring the fact that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Dr. Ferenchak, a former UCLA researcher and pediatric resident at Seattle Children’s Hospital, University of Washington, notes that no measure currently exists to quantify the degree of integration for clinics and their partner schools.  

The presentation included remarks by Dr. Rebecca Dudovitz, a board member of The L.A. Trust and associate professor in general pediatrics and vice-chair of the Primary Care College at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. 

“Measuring school health integration can drive practice improvement initiatives among SBHC-school partners, identify SBHC and school characteristics that are associated with better integration, and test whether better integration is associated with better student health and academic outcomes,” they reported. 

Scanning the environment 

The Learning Collaborative included presentations by three organization facilitators with L.A. Unified Student Health and Human Services: Ana Griffin gave an update on Wellness Network performance; Gloria Velasquez conducted a whiteboard exercise on successes in outreach and services; and Victor Luna led a resiliency exercise.  

Robert Renteria, program manager of The L.A. Trust, and Erika Hernandez, project specialist for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, gave a presentation on Conducting an Environmental ScanPreparing for Implementation of Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) at Your School-Based Health Center. 

School-based health centers are encouraged to use the Environmental Scan to ensure they are providing accessible substance use prevention and treatment services. It reflects lessons learned by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and The L.A. Trust from a multi-year initiative to integrate SBIRT into five school-based health centers across South Los Angeles. Funding for the project was provided by the California Community Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

Wellness Center leaders collaborate on student health

School-based managers and clinicians from Los Angeles school-based Wellness Centers learned best practices for student health at The L.A. Trust for Children’s Health Fall Learning Collaborative, October 19, 2019, at LAUSD headquarters. The semi-annual event focused on innovative approaches to HPV prevention, contraception awareness, and other urgent student health issues.

The meeting featured a detailed update on The L.A. Trust’s new Data xChange, an initiative that will link real-world clinical data with student performance data to gain insights and find new ways to improve outcomes.

Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust, said new insights are needed to drive student healthcare in Los Angeles to the next level.

The ambitious initiative has finished its initial phase (gathering clinical data) and laid the groundwork for Phase 2, linking clinical data to student performance data. Rigorous privacy protocols for the data have been established.

Wellness Center leaders poured over reports from their Wellness Centers, including stats on unique patient visits, services provided and demographics. Dr. Ron Tanimura, director of Student Medical Services for L.A. Unified, and Dr. Sang Leng Trieu of The L.A. Trust, led the discussion on Wellness Center metrics and discussed the history and future of the network.

Sexual health

Dr. Kathleen Tebb of the University of San Francisco released results from “Health-E You/Salud iTu,” a computer-based, patient–centered contraception awareness program focused on Latina youth. The awareness program, deployed in partnership with The L.A. Trust, resulted in a substantial increase in clinical visits and a 117% increase in the use of Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives among the target group. Version 2.0 of the program will switch genders and focus on young Latino males.

Heather Kun from the nonprofit “Fu*k Cancer,” unveiled the group’s HPV vaccination campaign, “Take Your Shot.” Kun noted than HPV causes 43,000 cancer deaths per year in the U.S., and all are preventable with the vaccine. The group is enrolling students to take the lead in an on-campus peer-to-peer campaign to get students vaccinated and save lives.

 Engaging students

 Two Wellness Center leaders shared how they involve students in their operations. Stephan Salazar, manager of adolescent education for Valley Community Healthcare, serving James Monroe High School in North Hills, discussed how his Student Advisory Board members intern at the clinic and provide advice for the operation and an informal support group for each other. Cassie Angus, Adult Ally at Fremont High School and program associate for its UMMA Community Clinic, also encourages student initiative, observing that “the best way to lead kids is to let kids lead themselves.”

The half-day conference included a briefing on school health integration by Dr. Rebecca Dudovitz of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and an update on upcoming School Well-Being Centers presented by Frances Valdez and Gloria Velasquez, organization facilitators for Student Medical Services at Los Angeles Unified.