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Stay up-to-date with the latest developments in student health, education, and our organization's updates and events.
Sharing Brings Hope campaign starts with community
L.A. Unified Interim Superintendent Megan Riley opened the 30th Sharing Brings Hope Consolidated Charity Campaign benefiting The L.A. Trust and 10 other nonprofits.
Nearly 100 L.A. Unified and local charity fundraisers joined the 30th anniversary Sharing Brings Hope Leadership Breakfast February 2, 2022, on Zoom.
L.A. Unified Interim Superintendent Megan Riley welcomed participants to the event, which kicks off the campaign’s 30th consolidated campaign running now until April 22. Other guests included, Kelly Gonez, LAUSD board member representing District 6, and Angela Padilla, board president of FundaMental Change. Hilda Solis, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, delivered pre-recorded remarks.
“This campaign fills in the gaps,” Gonez said. “It helps lifts up our L.A. Unified families.” The event ended with an emotional and unscripted appeal from District 1 Board Member Dr. George McKenna III, who said the campaign has always been driven by “faith, hope and charity and above all, love.”
The annual campaign benefits 11 nonprofits supporting the Los Angeles Unified community, including The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health, the Asian Pacific Community Fund, Brotherhood Crusade, Creating Healthier Communities, EarthShare California, Kathryn Kurka Children’s Health Fund, LAUSD Employee Sponsored Scholarship Fund, United Latinx Fund, United Negro College Fund, United Teachers Educational Foundation, and United Way of Greater Los Angeles.
Despite COVID and quarantine, the campaign raised $250,00 in 2021 and hopes to raise $300,000 during the 60-day campaign. There are two ways to give: one-time contributions by cash or check, or payroll deductions. Visit the Sharing Brings Hope website to contribute or learn more.
The L.A. Trust Year in Review: 2021 was a time of action
Last year was a watershed year as The L.A. Trust expanded its scope and capabilities to address key concerns like the COVID-19 pandemic and youth mental health.
Last year The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health and its partners built on the lessons of 2020 to take action on the converging crises facing L.A.’s schools and communities.
As the virulent delta variant took hold, The L.A. Trust launched a COVID-19 Youth Task Force and joined a broad coalition of agencies, healthcare providers and nonprofits countering vaccine disinformation and urging vaccination against the coronavirus.
The L.A. Trust convened the healthcare and education communities to address the growing mental health crisis among students and young people, hosting our first Youth Mental Health Collaborative in conjunction with L.A. Unified.
Student engagement remained a top priority of The L.A. Trust despite the quarantine, as Student Advisory Board members met online at our Y2Y Student Health Summit and Student Health Summer Learning Academy. As students, teachers and Wellness Center clinicians returned to campus, we went back to school with them, hosting educational events and resuming in-person student engagement on suicide prevention and other issues.
The L.A. Trust expanded its role as the backbone of L.A.’s student health community by convening educators and healthcare providers at its Wellness Network Learning Collaboratives, expanding its Data xChange initiative and launching a new tool for school-health center integration.
A year of growth
The L.A. Trust started the school year in October by adding eight new staff members. Board President Will Grice of Kaiser Permanente said, “This is the biggest growth initiative in The L.A. Trust's 20-year history. These new team members will allow us to expand policy development, advocacy, prevention education and student engagement.”
Officers, board members and staff of The L.A. Trust unpacked issues of equity, diversity and inclusion at a special online meeting in May. Intersectionality expert Dr. Nooshin Valizadeh led the discussion, which was designed to foster thought exchange; define racism and understand its history and impact; and to name, challenge and change racial biases.
Moving event
The pandemic did not stop The L.A. Trust Salute to Student Health, an in-person and online gala honoring former L.A. Unified School Superintendent Austin Beutner and Dr. Lynn Yonekura, community health director at Dignity Health California Hospital. More than 200 healthcare providers, educators and civic leaders were moved by the event, and more than $200,000 was raised to support The L.A. Trust mission.
The L.A. Trust started the year by convening our Oral Health Advisory Board and observing Children’s Dental Health Month with a social media campaign and round two of Operation Tooth Fairy, which distributed nearly 60,000 toothbrushes and oral healthcare items.
We also observed School-Based Healthcare Awareness Week Month in February, joining our partners at the California School-Based Health Alliance in advocating for greater funding and awareness of this critical healthcare system.
“Our SBHCs are more critical than ever,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health. “Supporting these centers has been a core part of our mission since our founding, and it’s important we redouble our efforts during this incredibly challenging time.”
Generous grant-makers support students and The L.A. Trust
Generous multi-year grants from leading foundations and agencies will help support L.A.’s students and sustain and expand the work of The L.A. Trust.
Throughout 2021 funders continued to show their wisdom and generosity through grant-making and interest in the work of The L.A. Trust. Several grants were for much-needed general operating support, including a two-year investment from the Weingart Foundation and one-year grants from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation and The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation.
We’re very grateful to have received first-time grants for general operating support from The Carol and James Collins Foundation, The Green Foundation, and Good Hope Medical Foundation. The Samerian Foundation made a first-time grant to our Student Mental Health Initiative, and a Dignity Health award allows us to continue into year three of their Cultural Trauma & Mental Health Resiliency Project.
Mental health engagement
We reconnected with the William M. Keck, Jr. Foundation, which is now funding our mental health student engagement work. And we continue to partner with FCancer to work with students on cancer prevention efforts, particularly around the HPV vaccine.
Some grant-makers sent us equity surveys this past year, adding to the deep feeling that we’re all working together to address racism in our city. As we continue to mobilize while remaining flexible around student needs and school mandates, we pause to recognize how grateful we are for all the ways that so many groups, from family funds to large institutions, lend their resources to the pursuit of healthcare equity and accessibility for all students.
‘We are in a moment’ — policy experts discuss converging student health crises
The L.A. Trust Student Health Policy Roundtable met for the first time last month to address healthcare issues affecting L.A. County students and their families.
An invited group of leaders in children’s health and student wellness assembled at the kickoff meeting of The L.A. Trust Student Health Policy Roundtable, online December 8, 2021. They discussed the urgent need to work together to find new solutions to the converging crises affecting student and community health.
The purpose of the roundtable, funded by Cedars-Sinai, is to “establish a forum where cross-sector leaders can advance a shared policy agenda for school-based healthcare and student wellness in Los Angeles County,” said Gabrielle Tilley, senior policy manager for The L.A. Trust.
Participants came from the public and private sectors, including the Children’s Partnership, the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County (CCALAC), Helpline Youth Counseling, Kaiser Permanente, L.A. County Departments of Public Health and Mental Health and Office of Education, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles (PPLA), L.A. Care and UCLA. Ana Perales and Toyomi Igus were present from The L.A. Trust board of directors.
New opportunities
Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust, said, “We are in a moment of great need.” She cited ongoing harm from the once-again surging coronavirus, numerous, interconnected health crises, and long-standing discrimination and racial disparities.
Along with the challenges, Puffer noted major opportunities, including increased public awareness and political will, federal recovery funds, California’s budget surplus and new spending on youth, education and mental health, especially the $4 billion California Youth and Behavioral Health Initiative.
Puffer said it was time to follow in the footsteps of The L.A. Trust’s original policy roundtable, which helped create a school healthcare model designed to integrate primary, behavioral and oral healthcare at L.A. Unified Wellness Centers. “There were five LAUSD Wellness Centers at the time (2008), but their efforts were not always uniform.”
Puffer said The L.A. Trust Data xChange is a key component to finding policy solutions that will take a holistic approach to student and community health concerns and “make our schools a center of well-being.”
Foundations
Tilley noted that 32 partners representing 21 organizations were interviewed prior to the inaugural meeting. Representatives included the Advancement Project, the Children’s Defense Fund, Children’s Law Center of California, CSHA, Children Now, the Community Coalition, CCLAC, Children’s Partnership, Essential Access Health, Inner City Struggle, PPLA, and L.A. Unified and the L.A. County Board of Education, Board of Supervisors, Office of Education and Department of Public Health.
Common challenges cited included lack of collaboration and integration, labor shortages, school leadership turnover, student and parental consent for services, cultural competency, funding, referral and billing processes, punitive disciplinary policies and a need to focus on the “whole child.”
Interviewees cited major opportunities for improvement, including major investments in schools and mental health, school-based health centers (SBHCs), community schools, peer advocacy, student and community engagement, reinvestment of policing dollars, universal free school meals, and early intervention with the 0-5 population.
Participants listened as Taaliyah Tucker, a former member of The L.A. Trust Student Advisory Board at Washington Prep, discussed the challenges faced by her fellow students, including COVID, quarantine and mental health.
“Mental health is really important right now,” she said. “Kids say they’re fine, but they’re not fine. You have to read the signs.”
Discovering shared values
Participants broke into eight groups to identify shared values. Issues raised included the importance of Black health, removing barriers to student healthcare and increasing power sharing and transparency.
“We must make health education culturally competent,” one participant said. Another emphasized the importance of “adventure counseling,” noting that most prevention education is negative or punitive. “It has to be youth-centered or it doesn’t work.”
A representative of the Los Angeles County Office of Education noted their focus on access for immigrant families, who have been hit especially hard by COVID.
Puffer said improving the student healthcare referral systems and working with L.A. Unified’s Community of Schools Initiative launched in 2020 should be considered as top priorities.
Next steps
Tilley announced that the group will meet again on January 14, 2022. “We will work from the heart, listen actively and assume good intentions.” The main purpose of the body will be to build an agenda that focuses on two or three major policy goals.
“Much like children’s health needs — the interests of this group are diverse and complex. Identifying two or three shared goals among us is no easy task, but after one meeting it’s clear this collaboration can be a powerful force for policy change,” Tilley said. “This is just the beginning.”
Mission Report: The L.A. Trust pivoted during pandemic
Our lockdown year (clockwise from top left): The L.A. Trust attended an on-campus healthcare rally; distributed PPE at St. John’s; taught little ones to brush on KLCS; handed out 100,000 toothbrushes during Operation Tooth Fairy; engaged students on Zoom; and helped promote the online CSHA Conference with State Superintendent Tony Thurmond.
The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health has released its 2021 Mission Report documenting an extraordinary year for the nonprofit agency and its stakeholders.
“Last year was challenging, especially for our underserved communities,” Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust, told stakeholders. “But it was not a lost year.”
“Like our students, teachers, school staff and healthcare providers, we found new strength, learned new skills and made new connections online,” Puffer said. “Like them, we found new ways of accomplishing our mission.”
The 16-page Mission Report details how the L.A. Trust pivoted during the quarantine. It transferred in-person meetings to online platforms like Zoom; expanded education campaigns on social media and television; and distributed more than 100,000 oral healthcare items and PPE at Wellness Centers and schools.
The L.A. Trust launched a new Student Mental Health Initiative and educated legislators about the need for school-based healthcare. It also convened experts and stakeholders at online forums and engaged student health advocates at virtual events. The L.A. Trust also launched a new website and rallying cry, “Putting the care in student healthcare.”
Students the unsung heroes
“Our partners stepped up to support us as we pivoted,” the report notes. “Los Angeles Unified School District emerged as a national leader in handling the crisis, and healthcare providers saved lives, while risking their own.”
An introductory message from Puffer and Board Chair Will Grice said, “The unsung heroes of the pandemic were our young people, who managed online education, nursed sick loved ones and shouldered increased family responsibilities.”
The Mission Report documents The L.A. Trust’s activities in nine key areas: Advocacy, healthy living/nutrition, mental health, oral health, research, sexual and reproductive health, student engagement, substance use prevention and support for L.A. Unified’s 17 Wellness Centers.
The report also lists key funders of The L.A. Trust, board members, Wellness Centers and Student Advisory Boards. It includes a financial report for the 12 months ended June 30, 2020 showing how the organization withstood the economic downturn by lowering overhead and raising funds through new grants and individual donations.
“I especially want to thank our executive committee and board for guiding us through this tumultuous year,” Puffer said. “Their expertise, counsel and personal fundraising activities were indispensable.”
The L.A. Trust hosts first Youth Mental Health Collaborative
The L.A. Trust, L.A. Unified, healthcare providers and student representatives are uniting to address youth mental health concerns.
Representatives from L.A. Unified School Mental Health, Student Health and Human Services, Wellness Center operators and other concerned organizations met at the first-ever Youth Mental Health Collaborative hosted March 25 by The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health.
Marsha Ellis, director of programs for The L.A. Trust, said, “The Youth Mental Health Collaborative has two objectives — to improve student mental health access and services, and incorporate youth voice into improving the system.” The collaborative is funded by the Ballmer Group and is part of The L.A. Trust Student Mental Health Initiative, launched last fall.
Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust, framed the work, outlining how training, engagement and referral systems will work together in a single strategy encompassing awareness, prevention and intervention, and healthcare access.
Puffer said members of The L.A. Trust Student Advisory Boards and after-school providers have already begun training in Youth Mental Health First Aid. Members of The L.A. Trust staff completed the training last year. Members of the Woodcraft Rangers attended the training March. Students will also participate in Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR), a suicide prevention program, and will continue to conduct student awareness campaigns on social media and on–campus, when classroom teaching resumes.
Survey finds challenges
Ellis presented survey results about the challenges encountered with remote counseling. The top issue reported was technology, followed by difficulty obtaining consent forms, distractions, lack of privacy, inadequate follow–through and complicated telehealth platforms.
Kim Griffin Esperon, a clinical social worker and administrative coordinator of LAUSD School Mental Health, provided an update on school mental health referrals, which have declined during the pandemic.
Esperon said providers can receive referral requests through several channels. LAUSD has an online “Mail Me” portal that can be used to send and receive parental consent forms. Another consent option is Zoom remote control and signature forms. Parents can also drop off and pick up paper consent forms at schools.
Jaime Ducreux, LAUSD organization facilitator, gave an update on the status of agreements between LAUSD and school-based mental health providers (MOUs). He said it has not been determined when outside providers will be allowed back on campus.
Tanya Mercado, a LAUSD social worker and attendance counselor, and Francisco Dussan of School Mental Health, Innovative Funding for Mental Health, spoke about funding models needed to expand and improve school-based mental health services. Research is still being conducted to investigate funding streams, develop deeper partnerships and recommend policy, practices and legislative changes needed to increase funding and support, they reported.
The one-hour collaborative concluded with a discussion on future bimonthly Youth Mental Health Collaboratives and establishing subcommittees to act as working groups.
Foundations sustain The L.A. Trust through COVID-19
Ballmer Group is among the foundations that have stepped up to support the work of The L.A. Trust during the coronavirus pandemic.
In the midst of the suffering and uncertainty of our multiple pandemics, the outpouring of community support from the philanthropic world has been heartening and reassuring. We continue to receive grants that make the difference for students between empty days and much-needed healing and enrichment. The following funders have committed grants this past quarter to benefit those we serve:
Ballmer Group notified us of their intention to invest on a large scale in student mental health through a two-year, $300,000 grant that will support our Student Mental Health Initiative, including Youth Mental Health Collaboratives. The purpose of The L.A. Trust project is to increase mental health education and prevention among Los Angeles Unified students within the Wellness Network by launching a collaborative made up of LAUSD leaders, Wellness Center staff, and community mental health organizations to identify and resolve obstacles to care. Student input will be a key component informing the group’s work. The group will also advocate for needed policy change at the district and county level. Much like our Wellness Network Learning Collaborative, our Oral Health Advisory Board and Data xChange Expert Advisory Council, this collaborative aims to improve students’ well-being through increased cooperation among stakeholders.
Ballmer Group supports efforts to improve economic mobility for children and families in the United States who are disproportionately likely to remain in poverty. This generous grant reflects their belief that building pathways to opportunity requires broad, systemic change.
Dignity Health is also making a significant investment in mental health, through a three-year effort funded in part by UniHealth Foundation to increase the awareness, skills and capacity of local community organizations and individuals to identify mental distress, address the impacts of trauma, reduce stigma and increase resiliency via delivery of mental health awareness education. The project focuses on children and youth of color and the adults who care for them in areas where high health disparities persist. Through a grant of $65,000, The L.A. Trust is joining in the second year of the project and will train after-school and academic support programs in Youth Mental Health First Aid and students in peer-to-peer outreach. We’re honored to work with the many organizations pioneering this effort.
FCancer awarded The L.A. Trust $12,000 to expand HPV education and increase HPV vaccinations during the fall semester at the schools we serve. This is an extension of FCancer’s Take a Shot campaign. FCancer is dedicated to prevention, early detection, and providing emotional support to those affected by cancer. We have been working with FCancer since 2016 and are proud to continue this key cancer prevention initiative in spite of the limitations imposed by COVID-19 precautions.
QueensCare is partnering with us for the first time through a $50,000 grant to support oral health education for children and their caregivers associated with nine local elementary schools. The L.A. Trust will share information via educational branded videos and live video chats with our community members. A nonprofit organization with compassion at its core, QueensCare offers direct patient care through a mobile dental program at many LAUSD schools and in the community. Understanding that tooth decay is the most pervasive, yet preventable, chronic disease among children in the United States, we are very grateful to continue our long-standing commitment to oral health for children through this grant. The support from QueensCare comes at a critical point in the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing The L.A. Trust to deliver much-needed educational outreach when many cannot access adequate dental care.
Satterberg Foundation has been a key supporter over the last three years through its seminal Core Support Grants. The Foundation recently let us know that they intend to provide another five years of general operating support in the form of $125,000 a year. The mission of the Seattle-based foundation is to promote a just society and a sustainable environment. The founders, board members, and staff of the Satterberg Foundation have a highly progressive, inclusive approach to grant-making. Their goal is to help organizations achieve their goals, to adapt to change, to innovate and to improve their ability to serve the community. They have been foundational in The L.A. Trust’s growth over the past three years, and we’re deeply honored to be continuing this relationship.
Our current times illuminate with great clarity the ways in which all of us are interconnected. The interdependence of student services, social progress, and philanthropy can be seen in these generous grants from committed, forward-thinking institutions. We remain grateful for and inspired by these sustaining relationships.
COVID testing key to L.A. Unified’s return-to-school strategy
L.A. Unified return-to-school plan encompasses testing and tracing for nearly 800,000 students and employees.
The Los Angeles Unified School District has begun an unprecedented coronavirus testing program, part of its developing return-to-school plan for nearly 800,000 students and employees
Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner said, “Health practices are in place. Classrooms and facilities have been electrostatically cleaned top to bottom, air-conditioning systems have been upgraded with the equivalent of N-95 filters, personal protective equipment is provided to all individuals on campus, and classrooms and facilities have been reconfigured to keep all at a school a safer distance apart.
“When students do return to schools, they’ll be kept in small cohorts to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. And as we learn of other ways to enhance health practices, we’ll incorporate them as quickly as possible.”
‘Taking the lead’
“Once again, LAUSD is taking the lead nationwide in protecting our students, teachers, staff and community members,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health. “It is essential that we open our schools as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Beutner added, “While unprecedented, the virus testing, community engagement and contact-tracing program is necessary and appropriate as we must do everything we can to protect the health and safety of all in the school community.”
Among those collaborating on the program are UCLA, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University, Microsoft, Anthem Blue Cross, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Health Net.
Student advocates prepare at The L.A. Trust Academy
Student advocates, shown here at The L.A. Trust’s Y2Y Conference in March, discussed how to conduct peer campaigns in the new school year on August 4-7.
Two dozen Student Advisory Board members from five Los Angeles high schools met with staff members of The L.A. Trust for its first-ever Summer Academy learning session August 4-7, 2020.
The students learned how to conduct peer-to-peer health campaigns, discussed ways to encourage visits to L.A. Unified Wellness Centers, and gained greater knowledge of healthcare disparities. The four-day pilot event was attended by SAB members from Crenshaw, Jordan, Locke and Washington Prep, as well as students from John Marshall High School.
The online Academy was facilitated by four staff members from The L.A. Trust: Robert Renteria, program manager; Eddie Hu, program manager; Mackenzie Scott, student engagement program coordinator; and Dannielle Griffin, student engagement program assistant.
Organizational facilitators from L.A. Unified Student Health and Human Services helping to inform and guide the students included Gloria E. Velasquez, Victor Luna, Rene Bell-Harbour and Maggie Yu-DiPasquale.
Impressed
Renteria said he was impressed by the students’ commitment to the 20-hour learning program. Scott said the students were knowledgeable (“they could have presented my learning modules”) and engaged (“the chat was blowing up like crazy.”)
Students discussed mental health, sexual and reproductive health, substance use prevention, public health, and their own career development. Wellness Center staff logged on to brief the students on updated hours and services and how to refer peers to the clinics.
Students took a break from their learning to share their insights with The L.A. Trust Board of Directors at their annual retreat, August 6. Maryjane Puffer and Board members thanked the students for their frank accounts of how the pandemic is affecting them and their communities.
The L.A. Trust’s Student Advisory Boards have met since August 18, the first week of L.A. Unified’s 2020-2021 school year. Renteria said, “Thanks to the Summer Academy, we have students ready to conduct campaigns about student and community health and to help increase awareness and use of the primary, mental and oral healthcare services offered by L.A. Unified’s student and family Wellness Centers.”
Virtual Advocacy Day for student health August 5
The L.A. Trust will educate Sacramento policymakers August 5 as part of CSBHA’s virtual Advocacy Day for student health.
School health is more important than ever, which is why leaders and program managers from The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health will be educating state policymakers as part of the California School Based Health’s Alliance’s first-ever virtual Advocacy Day on Wednesday, August 5.
School health providers and youth throughout California are invited to join the one-day campaign to educate legislators and policymakers in Sacramento about the importance of school- and community-based efforts to support healthy students — and to outline what they are facing this fall.
When you sign up online you can choose to attend one of CSBHA’s “Getting Ready for Virtual Advocacy Day” webinars:
Tuesday, July 28 at 1:00 pm
Monday, August 3 at 10:00 am
Space is limited so sign up today so you have ample time to plan for your meeting.
Advocacy Day schedule
Wednesday, August 58:45-9:00 am - Open Virtual Meeting Session
9:00-9:30 am - Welcome, virtual rally and overview of visits
9:30-10:00 am - Break into teams and prepare for visits
10:00 am-12:00 pm- Three to four virtual visits with state legislators and their staff
“Legislators and policymakers need to hear from you – experts on the ground – to learn about the importance of school-based health,” according to CSBHA. “One of the best ways to gain support for better resourced and comprehensive school health services is to share what you know – and see every day – that makes this work so important.
“While we really wanted to host in-person advocacy visits earlier this year, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented those plans,” CSBHA said. “As this pandemic has disproportionately impacted people served by school-based health centers, it’s more important than ever for you to share challenges and experiences with policymakers as schools grapple with a changing environment.”
You will need to sign-up for a free Zoom account (using the same email you use to register for Advocacy Day). CSBHA recommends participating on a computer with good Internet access. You may also download the Zoom app and participate on your Apple or Android smartphone or tablet.
The impact of racism on children’s health cannot be ignored
The murder of George Floyd has shined a spotlight on racism, which affects every aspect of American life, including the health of children and adolescents. Photo by Gabe Pierce on Unsplash.
The murder of George Floyd has brought the issue of racism to the forefront once again. But racism does not affect just the justice system — it is the major determinant in the healthcare outcomes of children and adolescents.
Last August the American Academy of Pediatrics put out its first policy statement on how racism affects the development and health of adolescents and children. “Policy statements like these are welcome — and long overdue,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health.
According to the AAP, racism has a profound impact on the health and status of children, adolescents, emerging adults and their families. The continued negative impact of racism on health and well-being through implicit and explicit biases, institutional structures and interpersonal relationships is clear.
Racism is a disease
“Those of us who have been doing this work are not surprised by findings like these,” Puffer said. The AAP states that racism, experienced directly or just witnessed, can lead to high levels of stress, depression and even inflammatory reactions. Race is also a factor in low birth weight, maternal mortality, heart disease and hypertension.
“If you saw these symptoms in a clinical setting you would diagnose racism as a chronic illness – one that is passed down from generation to generation,” Puffer said.
In addition to the direct physical effects of racism, there are the health effects of institutional racism and implicit bias built into every aspect of American life, including jobs, housing, policing, incarceration and our education and healthcare systems. All of these factors impact the health outcomes of Black and Brown students and families. Any one of these factors can kill.
COVID-19 is a textbook case. African Americans have the highest death rate for the disease in Los Angeles County: 13 deaths per 100,000 people versus 9.5 for Latinx, 7.5 for Asians and 5.5 for whites. The factors are myriad (poor healthcare, housing and greater co-factors like diabetes, asthma and heart disease), but underlying all these is racism.
Two–front battle
“We need to advance on two fronts,” Puffer said. “We must address structural racism by investing in healthcare and preventative programs in our underserved communities.” Our communities — and the kids who live in them — are not getting the primary, oral and mental healthcare services they need and deserve.
Funding is needed, funding that is threatened by the budget cuts being actively considered in Sacramento and Washington. Community clinics, oral health providers and hospitals have been hit hard by COVID-19. “We must fight for government funding and reject false economies during this economic crisis,” Puffer said.
“We also need to look at racism and bias within our healthcare system itself,” she said. As many institutions have acknowledged, there is a long legacy of inequal treatment of Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples in the healthcare system. People of color, especially African Americans, are less likely to be heard, diagnosed and successfully treated than whites. “We need more Black and Brown healthcare providers. We must eliminate unconscious bias and serve patients in a cultural context. We’re making progress, but not enough.
“The healthcare providers I see working in our underserved communities are doing heroic work,” Puffer said. “They know their patients and they know their communities. But there are not enough of them and they do not have the resources they need,” Puffer said. “We must expand, not cut, healthcare in our communities.
“We must seize this moment and redirect our priorities to invest in the healthcare of our students and communities,” she added. “We can’t end racism overnight, but we can start dismantling healthcare disparities piece by piece, patient by patient. We must ensure the current revolution leads us to a long-term evolution of our healthcare system.”
Data xChange points way to better healthcare solutions
Dr. Ron Tanimura said The L.A. Trust’s Data xChange would drive new healthcare strategies to better serve students and communities.
Technologies like telehealth and initiatives like The L.A. Trust Data xChange are key to better student health outcomes, according to speakers at the online Wellness Network Learning Collaborative on May 7, 2020. Dr. Ron Tanimura, director of student health services at LAUSD, and Sang Leng Trieu, wellness program manager for The L.A. Trust, gave an update on The L.A. Trust Data xChange, which compiles and compares detailed Wellness Center patient data. They spoke to more than 100 representatives from LAUSD and the District’s Wellness Centers.
Pia V. Escudero, executive director of LAUSD Student Health and Human Services and a member of the executive committee of The L.A. Trust, noted that the clinic network was founded almost 15 years ago “to reduce health disparities impacting the lifespans of our children in families.” She said “there’s still a lot of work to do,” and insights like the Data xChange are key to finding effective solutions.
“The data is so wonderful,” Escudero said. “It gives us a good baseline to start having future conversations and doing some hypothesis working and strategic planning in this transformational time that we’re living in.”
Tanimura said data was critical. “We have to look at every one of our divisions and departments and integrate and (utilize) some of the resources we have outside, mainly The L.A. Trust. I thank you for the work you are doing, especially on Data xChange.”
He added, “The more data we get the better. When we look at the Data xChange, this is a thousand times better than just encounter data. We look forward to integrating all the data – dental, mental health, attendance and other academic data. Imagine what we will be able to do for our kids and their communities.”
Current reports include such measures as unique patient visits, type of patient encounters, co-morbid conditions, demographics and student vs. community visits. The database also tracks services provided and benchmarks on key performance standards, including risk assessments, well-child exams, BMI screening, chlamydia tests and depression screening.
The L.A. Trust distributed report cards with clinical metrics to each clinic in February and will add new datasets on mental and oral health later this year, expanding the database insights.