Photo courtesy of The Children’s Clinic.
Long Beach nonprofit The Children’s Clinic (TCC) celebrated the end of National Community Health Center Week with the grand opening of two new health centers last Thursday, including a mobile clinic.
TCC added their fourth school-based health center at Roosevelt Elementary School along with a mobile medical van designated for homeless families.
The van, which is set to launch in early September, is a work space on wheels that makes it more accessible to assist the homeless, TCC officials said
“It is planned to be parked in places where the homeless are gathered like Lincoln Park and over on Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) and the 710 freeway,” said Dr. Elisa Nicholas, CEO of The Children’s Clinic, Serving Children & Their Families. “The goal is to meet them where they are.”
TCC partnered with Mental Health America, a nonprofit that assesses the needs of people with mental illnesses, to ensure homeless families are getting the proper treatment and medical care they need, said Nicholas.
One of TCC’s major goals with this new medical van is to try to get people the health care they need, she said. Although not all the services can be provided through the medical van, the nurse practitioner can refer them to a health center for proper treatment.
The Roosevelt Elementary School Health Center, which partnered with the Long Beach Unified School District, will offer services that other health centers provide such as behavior health screening and therapy, and primary and preventative care. Every Friday afternoon from 3:00PM to 6:00PM, services will be provided exclusively to teenagers.
The Children’s Clinic also partnered with the Khmer Girls in Action, whose members were present at the grand opening. The Khmer Girls in Action is a Long Beach-based organization led by young Southeast Asian women who focus on gender, racial and economic justice, according to its site.
TCC now has 12 health centers located throughout the community. To learn more about the services it offers and its locations, click here.