Joined CHF’s National Network: June 1999
Home Institution/Affiliation: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
Medical Director: Arthur Cho, MD
Program Director: Michele Rigsby Pauley, RN, CPNP
Sampling of Services:
CHF's Special Initiatives:
Areas Served: Urban communities throughout California's Los Angeles County.
The Los Angeles Children's Health Project, also known as COACH for Kids and Their Families, provides services to children in low-income and medically underserved areas throughout Los Angeles County.
Their services are badly needed. More than 510,000 children in Los Angeles County live in poverty with limited or no access to basic health care. Forty percent of the patients seen by the LACHP live "doubled up," with several families living in one or two bedroom apartments.
Many of the children served are recent immigrants with complex health care needs. Often they are under-immunized and have received limited or no preventive health care. Many children seen by the LACHP have dental decay and baby bottle caries; inadequate nutrition resulting in obesity, malnutrition and iron deficiency anemia; asthma; and conditions related to overcrowding. Additionally, a number of patients need counseling for learning disabilities or behavior problems.
The Los Angeles Children's Health Project delivers comprehensive primary care to economically challenged areas at WIC centers, HeadStart programs, elementary and middle schools, churches, public housing projects and community agencies. In this way, the LACHP overcomes barriers to care such as lack of insurance, language difficulties and lack of financial resources.
