Q&A with Jim Mangia: “South L.A. has been hit hard by COVID”

Jim Mangia is president and CEO of St. John’s Well Child & Family Center, operator of Wellness Centers at Lincoln, Manual Arts and Washington Prep, all of which have remained open during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Maryjane Puffer is executive director of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health and has led the organization since 2009. The former pediatric nurse is a recognized expert in student health programs and community outreach.  

Question from Maryjane Puffer: COVID-19 has been especially devastating to communities served by the Wellness Network. Can you describe the impact of COVID-19 on the communities you serve? 

Answer from Jim Mangia: The South Los Angeles community has been hit hard by the COVID pandemic in so many ways. We have the highest rates of COVID cases in the county. Some days over the summer, 30% of the people who came in to be tested were infected with COVID. Frontline workers, essential workers, factory workers were called back to work in June and July, were not given masks and protective gear and got infected at work. They brought it home to their families. And then the employers wouldn’t let them back to work until they showed a negative test result, which could take months. In addition to being sick, or seeing loved ones die, people lost their homes, their jobs.  It was devastating.

Q. How has COVID and the school and economic shutdown impacted your three Wellness Centers? Are you still seeing a lot of students or are you seeing greater numbers of community members? 

A. People still need healthcare. And since we’re offering free COVID testing for students and their families, our Wellness Centers have been extremely busy. We erected sterilized isolation tents at all of our sites to reduce the possibility of infection during the COVID test. We’ve had no cross-infection at any of our clinic sites or Wellness Centers because of the rigorous protocols we put into place. But we’re seeing more patients than we were before the pandemic hit, because in addition to people needing their diabetes medicine or their hypertensive care, tens of thousands of people depended on St. John’s for their COVID testing.

Q. What services are you offering to students and community members? Have you noted a change?

A. We’re continuing to offer the full range of medical, dental and behavioral health services to students, their families and the community at large, in addition to COVID testing, triage and follow-up care. We have added telehealth services so we can better triage patients with symptoms. If a patient tests positive for COVID, our doctors can call them every day and monitor their symptoms. If their symptoms start to worsen, we can get them into a hospital immediately. We know that once symptoms occur, the sooner you get to a hospital, the better chance you have for survival. We’ve saved hundreds of lives through the telehealth monitoring we’ve been doing, in addition to the testing and regular primary care services that have continued.

Q. Are people foregoing treatment they should otherwise be getting?

A. Initially yes. About one-third of our patients were foregoing treatment and cancelling appointments. We were able to provide telehealth to them and have medicine delivered to their homes, which allowed our doctors to stay on top of their health status and health conditions. Our screening protocols are so rigorous, and the fact that we have two isolation tents at every site also made patients feel more secure coming in for their visits. Now our cancellation rate is under 5%, so patients are feeling safe and keeping their visits. We take every patient’s temperature before they enter the clinic and ask a set of screening questions.  If they answer yes to any questions or have fever, they are sent to the isolation tent for their visit, where we also administer a COVID test.

Q. How has student and community mental health been impacted by COVID? What can be done about it?

A. We’re seeing a significant increase in depression and anxiety disorders as a result of the pandemic. It’s most acute with patients who have lost a loved one to COVID, but there is widespread stress, anxiety and depression as a result of the pandemic. Many residents have lost their jobs. Many have lost loved ones. Many have been sick. The pandemic is having a direct and significant impact on the mental health of the South Los Angeles community.

Q. What is the most important thing students and community members should know about your services right now?

A. That we are open to serve them and can provide whatever health services they need — medical, dental, behavioral health, in addition to COVID testing and triage. We are also participating in a clinical trial with UCLA to provide a very effective and free COVID treatment to patients who have symptoms and are infected.