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The Palomar High School Clinic is a collaborative project
of the Sweetwater Union High School District, Open Door Youth and Family Resource Center,
Scripps Family Practice Residency Program,
Scripps Otay Family Health Center and the San Diego Border Area Health Education Center. Planning and needs
assessment began in February 2000. With the hard work of all the above collaborators, the Palomar High School
Clinic officially opened with a Community Health Fair on May 17, 2003. A new school-based clinic at
Southwest High was opened in September 2007. The clinic is in collaboration with San Ysidro Family Health Centers
and Southwest High School.
Students and families of the Palomar High School community are able to access limited, no-cost health care through
the Palomar High School Clinic. This is a satellite of the Scripps Otay Family Health Center. Faculty physicians
and family practice residents from the Scripps Family Practice Residency Program provide the clinical care.
Services are provided on-site two half days per week. Services include care for acute medical problems, health
evaluations and referrals to Scripps Otay Family Health Center, Chula Vista Family Clinic, Scripps Mercy Hospital
Chula Vista or any locally accessible clinic for advanced care. In addition, resident physicians and faculty
provide health education on adolescent health topics.
The educational goals of this program include a development of residents knowledge, attitudes and skills to care
for adolescents in the context of their school, home and community. Family Practice resident physicians gain
the knowledge and skills necessary to assess and understand the important health needs of the Chula Vista and
Otay communities. Palomar High and Southwest High School students participate in health education programs
designed collaboratively by students, residents, and faculty based on a risk and needs-assessment survey. Also,
Palomar High school students gain the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to pursue health careers.
Southwest High School-Based Clinic Brochure
Scripps Mercy also looks beyond present conditions to focus on the future health of the community through the
San Diego Border Area Health Education Center (AHEC).
In 1996 Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista partnered with the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
to establish the San Diego Border AHEC, and in 2003 Scripps Mercy's San Diego campus began participating in the program.
One of the primary goals of the AHEC is to ensure the continued health of our neighborhoods by promoting careers in health
care among the youngest members of our community. These youth-oriented programs include:
Created to help local students learn more about the wide array of opportunities available in health care, the
Healthy Youth Healthy Futures program is open to students from elementary to high school. Activities include college
tours for high school participants, hospital tours, health career fairs and presentations from health care
professionals.
To introduce young students to health careers, this three-day camp educates them on the duties performed by
professionals in various medical fields. Camp activities include a tour of a community health clinic,
hands-on activities involving health care, speakers on health-related issues and a visit to a fire station to
learn about first responders.
Students learn about health careers by visiting the hospital and interacting with staff members.
Designed to help older students set a course for a successful health care career, students interact with
health care mentors and participate in career workshops during a three-month period.
Students from local schools tour the hospital and spend time in clinical departments to learn about a variety of health care professions.
This special clinic was developed to help medical residents gain skills in adolescent medicine while exposing
school participants to the abilities needed for a career in healthcare. Residents and students interact twice
a week during the clinic.
Medical residents or other health care professionals enlighten students on health care careers through
engaging presentations.
Students who are interested in surgical medicine can meet surgeons and other operating room staff members and
observe an actual orthopedic surgery.
The unique youth-oriented programs offered by the San Diego Border AHEC have helped introduced thousands of
students to rewarding opportunities in health care. Scripps Mercy Hospital's support of these programs is an
investment in the continued health of our neighborhoods – helping the children of today become the
health care professionals of tomorrow.
For more information about youth programs, please contact Kendra Brandstein, Director
of Community Benefit Services at Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista, at (619) 862-6601 or
brandstein.kendra@scrippshealth.org.
Scripps Mercy Chula Vista Youth Programs
Scripps Family Medicine Residents as well as local specialists are very engaged in community activities of the
Scripps Well-Being Center providing community health education, outreach and "Meet the Doc and Meet the
Specialist" sessions. Some of the presentations include a variety of health topics that include nutrition,
mental health, HIV/AIDS and a variety of women's health topics. The health presentations provide an interchange
between the community and our residents to foster healthy lifestyles and health prevention.
Community Health activities are offered through the Scripps Well Being Center that includes support groups,
physician presentations, community meetings, health trainings, as well as a variety of other community activities.
Classes are in Spanish and English.
Some support groups that meet at the Well Being Center includes epilepsy, stroke/Parkinson's exercise class,
various women's health groups, children with special needs, senior care and diabetes support. Past health
presentations and trainings lead by various health professionals include HIV/AIDS, Women's Health, Family
Planning, Mental Health, Diabetes, Nutrition and Cardiovascular Disease.
Some community organizations that utilize the Well Being Center include the Sweetwater School District,
Chula Vista School District, the Chula Vista Coordinating Council and the South Bay Partnership for the
Public's Health.
The Scripps Well Being Center is a wonderful community resource that not only educates the public but helps
train medical residents and established health professionals to encourage preventative health.
The purpose of the California Preparedness Education Network (cal-PEN) program is to provide education and
training for California healthcare professionals who serve the state's multicultural underserved populations
in rural, inner city, Native American, and NHSC-served communities. The education provided, through a sequence
of module presentations and interactive tabletop exercises, instructs healthcare professionals on how to manage
public health emergencies caused by natural and man-made disasters. cal-PEN provides an innovative statewide
educational network whereupon health professionals gain invaluable knowledge of the possible events that occur
during disasters and how to manage and maintain patient care during the incidences through self-sustaining plans
or by making connections in the private and public sector entities.
The cal-PEN program is part of a collaboration of California's Statewide Area Health Education Center Program (AHEC).
The partnership develops an enduring and flexible network of skilled educators to conduct continuing education
for those health professionals caring for residents of medically underserved communities (rural, disadvantaged,
and other populations) throughout California to promote public health and well being.
For more information regarding cal-PEN and or to schedule a training contact Erin Kennedy, Program Coordinator at (619)
862-6604 or via email at Kennedy.erin@scrippshealth.org
cal-PEN Fact Sheet
Through the efforts of Promotoras/Community Health Workers, this program works to increase culturally and
linguistically appropriate breast health education and access to care for women. Through this "promotora-based"
health promotion model, the hospital, clinic and community ensures that underserved and underrepresented women
receive appropriate, tailored, "diversity-sensitive" education designed to increase access to screening and
radiology services. Overall, the project reaches more than 24,000 women yearly through culturally appropriate
one-on-one individual and group outreach education efforts. The project ensures that 3,500 or more women reach
screening services yearly.
UCSD School of Medicine Doctors Ought to Care (DOC) Program works with the San Diego Border AHEC to assist with
linking to South Bay school sites to introduce as variety of health topics to youth in the classroom. The
faculty-supervised program is run by medical students and set up as an elective that provides hands-on
interactive learning for medical student training while providing an opportunity for health education to
local students. Some of the program topics presented include: Nutrition, HIV/AIDS, Smoking, Alcohol as well
as a variety of other topics.
Scripps Mercy Hospital Chula Vista, Project Concern International and its San Diego-based partners are launching
a new project to improve the health of pregnant women, mothers, and their babies in San Diego County.
The California Border Healthy Start Project will enhance the capacity of the local maternal
and child health and social service systems in San Diego County while contributing to improved birth outcomes.
Project partners will help low-income women and families living in Southeast San Diego, Mid City, Central
San Diego, Lemon Grove, Spring Valley, and National City, an area that represents the poorest birth outcomes
and highest levels of poverty in the County. Key partners include San Diego County HHSA Maternal, Child and
Family Health Services Branch; UCSD Medical Center including the UCSD Volunteer Doula Program, UCSD Midwifery
Services and community health clinics; Scripps Mercy Hospital; Family Health Centers of San Diego; La Maestra
Community Clinic; National Medical Association (NMA) Comprehensive Health Center (CHC); San Diego Family Care;
and Best Start Birth Center.
Scripps will take the lead on increasing effective outreach and recruitment into prenatal services early
in pregnancy; and improving follow-up through case management among high- and medium-risk women. Respected,
qualified, and culturally-competent community members with significant experience working as community
health workers, certified nurse assistants, and/or medical assistants will be employed as Patient Navigators
to supplement the currently stressed system of case management for medium- and high-risk women and children
in the area. These patient advocates will partner with the existing health and social service system to deliver
sensitive, relationship-based, trusted, high-quality, coordinated, intensive, and effective core services to
the vulnerable women in the area that are currently falling through the safety net.
Project objectives are to reduce the number of infant deaths, reduce the percent of low birth weight infants, increase
the percent of pregnant women starting prenatal care in the first trimester, and increase the number of women
who complete screening for post-partum depression and domestic violence. The long-term goal is to affect
change at the systems level and ensure an integrated service delivery system for San Diego's most in need.
For more information, or to learn how you can support this project, please visit Project Concern International's
website at www.projectconcern.org or call
Kendra Brandstein at (619) 862-6601.
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