Latest Wellness Center opens at Santee Education Complex

L.A. Trust Executive Director Maryjane Puffer addressed the importance of school-based wellness centers at the Santee Education Complex ribbon-cutting, December 2, 2019.

The newest LAUSD Student and Family Wellness Center opened December 2, 2019 at Santee Education Complex in South Los Angeles—and educators, students, clinicians and healthcare leaders welcomed the new facility in style.

Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health, said the benefits of school-based health centers are proven: “Students who get quality healthcare have better outcomes and less chronic disease than those who don’t.”

Puffer said. The L.A. Trust was proud to support the establishment of the new clinic early on, and to assist the growing LAUSD Wellness Center network, she said. 

The ceremonies were led by Los Angeles Unified Board Member Mónica García, who noted that the District has invested ten of millions of dollars building school-based wellness centers in high-need areas. An ebullient García led the crowd in applause for everyone who helped make the new center possible, from students and staff to advocates and taxpayers.

Speakers and ribbon-cutters included Kristina Tokes, LAUSD deputy chief facilities executive; Alicia Garoupa-Bollinger, representing Pia Escudero, executive director of LAUSD Student Health and Human Services; Martine Singer, CEO of the Children’s Institute; Joan Sullivan, CEO of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools; and Santee Principal Susana Gutierrez.

Power of partnership

Three more Wellness Centers are currently on the drawing boards: Mendez High School in Boyle Heights (ground-breaking  held December 9), Maclay Middle School in Pacoima, and Hyde Park Elementary in South Los Angeles. A wellness center at Telfair Avenue Elementary in Pacoima opened in October.

The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health has supported the Wellness Center network since its inception in 2009, advocating for new centers, bringing programs, resources and education to students and community members, conducting clinician training, conducting research and establishing Student Advisory Boards to promote youth engagement. 

A program staff of nine is currently working on more than a dozen different initiatives impacting the health of L.A. students. In October, The L.A. Trust hosted its semi-annual Wellness Network Learning Collaborative focused on innovative approaches to HPV prevention, contraception awareness, and other urgent student health issues.

The future is data-driven

“The L.A. Trust provides a bridge between the education and healthcare community, and the Wellness Centers are the front door, for both students and community members,” said Puffer. “Our priority is prevention and education, especially in the critical areas of oral health, nutrition, tobacco and drug use, sexual and reproductive health, and, increasingly, mental health. We are proud to partner with government agencies, LAUSD and leading health and dental care providers to help make a difference in student health.” 

Going forward, The L.A. Trust’s Wellness Center support will be driven by data. The L.A. Trust’s innovative Data xChange initiative will link healthcare and educational performance data to find ways to improve healthcare strategies and educational outcomes. “This will not only help us deliver on our promise of improving the health of the LAUSD communities we serve, it will give us the insights we need to design programs and services that connect better healthcare to improved educational performance,” said Puffer.

Funding for the Data xChange comes from grants from Cedars-Sinai, Kaiser Permanente, DentaQuest and the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation , among others.

“The L.A. Trust is an independent nonprofit devoted to the students of the LAUSD, but the vast majority of our budget comes from outside funders and agencies,” Puffer said.  “These relationships help us serve as a bridge between the education and healthcare and connect the dots in student health.”

The L.A. Trust delivers nourishing ideas to LAUSD communities

L.A. Trust Health Educator Lillian Orta shares nutrition ideas and recipes with community members at the Fremont High School Fresh Food Fair. 

On a brilliant November morning, neighborhood residents are lined up near the UMAA Fremont Wellness Center to get into the Free Food Fair at Fremont High in South Los Angeles. The Fair offers pumpkins, mangoes, squash, lettuce and other fresh produce—and nutrition, health and recipe advice from The L.A. Trust’s Program Director Nina Nguyen and Health Educator Lillian Orta.

It’s all part of The L.A. Trust’s school and community outreach on behalf of CalFresh Healthy Living. The state program, formerly known as Champions for Change, is a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) initiative that supports healthy, active and nourished lifestyles by teaching low-income Californians about good nutrition and how to stretch their food dollars, while also “building partnerships in communities to make the healthy choice.”

In the field

The L.A. Trust works with LAUSD and the District’s school-based Wellness Centers to carry the CalFresh Healthy Living message to students and community members both. “It’s really rewarding to be a CalFresh Healthy Living partner,” said Nguyen. “Good health starts with good nutrition, and people really get engaged in our outreach,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt that fresh food looks and tastes so much better than cheap processed food.” 

Since October, Nguyen, Orta and L.A. Trust Program Manager Esther Yepez have travelled across Los Angeles to talk to students and community members about nutrition, physical activity and healthy beverage options (hint: water is better than soda). By March 2020, the team will have conducted 50  classroom sessions and appeared at two community events and two school events at five different sites in the District. They’ve also distributed thousands of brochures and recipe books in Spanish and English.   

“Eating healthy and staying active helps prevent so many long-term health issues—from tooth decay to obesity and diabetes,” Rico said. “In most instances, motivation is not the problem. Getting and preparing fresh food on a budget is the challenge, and we’re proud to partner with CalFresh Healthy Living to support our communities in meeting that challenge.”

Eight new grants will drive The L.A. Trust mission

The Los Angeles Trust is proud to announce eight new grants from partners who understand the critical health-related needs and issues facing students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Several of these partners came forward earlier in this school year to lend support to our mission.

Long-time partner Kaiser Permanente awarded a $500,000 grant over two years to fund three initiatives: Healthy Eating, Active Living (HEAL); our Oral Health Initiative; and the groundbreaking Data xChange.  HEAL is Kaiser Permanente’s multi-faceted, integrated strategy to achieve long-term sustainable reductions in obesity and related chronic illnesses; funds for the Oral Health Initiative will support education and dental screening for kindergarteners as well as parent and caregiver education; and the Data xChange funding will make it possible for us to integrate academic data with Wellness Center health data.  Kaiser Permanente’s beneficent support continues to be a mainstay of our work.

Another exciting development is the continuation of work on SBIRT coordination (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment) at five Wellness Centers.  This is an impactful four-year grant from the California Community Foundation to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, with which we partner to increase screenings and improve data collection. With the legalization of cannabis, and with vaping and drug use on the rise in our schools, this work is more important than ever.

DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement (DentaQuest Partnership) has remained a major supporter this year, with three generous grants to support improvement of oral healthcare delivery in Los Angeles and beyond.  We received $125,800 for the Oral Health Initiative to increase our oral health policy advocacy, the oral health build-out of the Data xChange, and to increase student participation at the elementary school dental screenings we facilitate.  In addition, we received $111,226 to support our participation in DentaQuest Partnership’s Oral Health Progress and Equity Network, where our staff serves as a key connector for the growing national network’s infrastructure; and $12,900 for Executive Director Maryjane Puffer to participate in the Regional Oral Health Connection Team.  We’re thrilled to continue the groundbreaking work that DentaQuest Partnership has championed for many years, addressing the pervasive but entirely preventable chronic disease of tooth decay among children in the U.S.

Cedars-Sinai is also supporting the Data xChange build-out with a $25,000 grant.  We’re very pleased to partner for the second time with Cedars-Sinai, which continues to be a champion for healthy communities.

We’re delighted to be working again with Fu*k Cancer through a $40,000 grant to raise awareness about cervical cancer prevention through HPV vaccination campaigns.  This year the program will be enhanced by increased work with the Student Advisory Boards as well as social media support provided by Fu*k Cancer.  The Data xChange will play a key role in tracking vaccination rates.

The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation awarded The L.A. Trust a general operating capacity-building grant of $75,000.  This generous support will help us strengthen the organizational infrastructure as well as support youth development and the Data xChange.

The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation is another long-time supporter that recently granted The L.A. Trust general operating funds in the form of a $15,000 grant.

Preventing cavities on Halloween (and all year long)

No one wants to take the treats out of Trick or Treat this Halloween. Least of all Maryjane Puffer, executive director of the L.A. Trust for Children’s Health and L.A.’s own “Tooth Fairy.” Puffer and her team at The L.A. Trust are dedicated to preserving the oral health of nearly 600,000 students in the L.A. Unified School District. “We see the damage that candy and sugary drinks can do. But there are ways to reduce cavities and still have fun.”

Puffer cites the American Pediatric Dental Association, which said that adults should limit what they give out (and kids should limit what they consume). Sticky, chewy and acidic candies are especially bad. Chocolate, pretzels, chips and sugar-free gum are better. And non-edible treats like temporary tattoos, stickers and toothbrushes are best.

The sky should not be the limit, according to The L.A. Tooth Fairy and the APDA. You can screen your child’s bag and trade up to a toy, or give excess candy to the Halloween Fairy to share with someone else.

The L.A. Trust has an entire team devoted to oral health in the sprawling Los Angeles Unified community and works in full partnership with LAUSD Student Health and Human Services staff along with university and community providers. The L.A. Trust team, spearheaded by Associate Program Director Stella Kim and Program Manager Esther Yepez, focuses on underserved areas, conducting events at dozens of elementary schools and screening thousands of kids.

Oral health a social justice issue

“The need is great,” Kim says. “About 50% of children screened have evidence of decay – a significant number have emergencies like abscesses or broken teeth.” Kim and Yepez use puppets with teeth and oversize toothbrushes to demonstrate proper brushing to the kids, but oral health is not all fun and games. “Oral health is essential to learning,” Kim said. “It is the most chronic disease in children, and it’s entirely preventable.” It’s estimated that an average of 2.2 school days per student per year could be saved by better oral health treatment.

DentaQuest, one of the nation’s largest dental benefits organizations, is the lead funder of The L.A. Trust’s oral health initiative. “Without their generous assistance we could not make a difference in the lives of so children,” Puffer said.

The L.A. Trust is looking forward to its annual Tooth Fairy Event at LAUSD’s 5K and Health & Wellness Festival, February 22 at Dodger Stadium. The festival attracts thousands of students and their families each year — top healthcare providers from Los Angeles and the nation will attend this premier outreach event.

Kaiser grants $500,000 to The L.A. Trust for new solutions

The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health has announced a two-year, $500,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente to provide healthcare programs, foster healthy habits and generate insights to improve student health in Los Angeles public schools.

A portion of the grant will underwrite an innovative new Data xChange initiative that will link healthcare and educational performance data to find ways to improve healthcare strategies and educational outcomes. 

“This major grant will not only help us deliver on our promise of improving the health of the LAUSD communities we serve, it will give us the insights we need to design programs and services that connect better healthcare to improved educational performance,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust.

Kaiser fully committed

Will Grice

“At Kaiser Permanente we are committed to helping everyone in our communities achieve total health,” said Will Grice, senior vice president and area manager, Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center.“That is why, through this grant, we’re proud to support The L.A. Trust in their efforts to increase access to oral health education, screenings and referrals for LAUSD students and their families, integrate healthy eating, active living programs into schools, and implement a system that measures the impact of health services on academic performance and attendance,” Grice said. “Together, we can work to reduce the disparity in access to quality health care in our communities.”

The mission of The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health is “to improve student health and increase readiness to learn through health care access, advocacy, and programs.” The independent 501c3 nonprofit organization supports 15 district-wide Wellness Centers and a variety of programs focused on preventative care, oral screenings and referrals, healthy living habits, mental health services and more. 

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.