PCHF Greater Impact Committee and Board of Trustees’ Report on the Decision to Open the Clinic

PCHF Launches the Health Care Collaborative

While the country struggles with the issue of health care reform, the Pasadena Child Health Foundation is moving support a collaborative effort to provide access to primary health care services to all underserved children in the city. This initiative called the “Child Health Collaborative” and the focus of PCHF grant funding for three years (2009-2012), establishes a mini-health clinic at Washington Middle School.

The Pasadena Child Health Foundation (PCHF) is a private foundation whose purpose is to promote the mental and physical health of children in the Pasadena area. In launching its new three-year funding of the Child Health Collaborative, which involves several Pasadena-area service providers, PCHF will place special emphasis on providing accessible health care to Pasadena’s uninsured and underinsured children. The initiative has three primary components. First, to improve access to primary care, the plan calls for the Pasadena Unified School District to provide clinic space and employ a nurse practitioner to staff the clinic beyond the school day. Second, Five Acres, a well-recognized mental health provider will offer counseling services. Another highly regarded local agency, Young & Healthy, operating through neighborhood outreach teams will provide information about clinic services and expertise on health insurance enrollment information.

By bringing together several important community agencies, the Child Health Collaborative can expand its effectiveness. According to the Chair of the PCHF Board, Jolly Urner, “we wanted to make an impact on kids who might be falling through the cracks. Rather than making individual grants to several non-profits, we are investing in a program that incorporates the expertise of local agencies and brings their skills to an area of high need.” Those skills will be available two days each week during after-school hours and the second Saturday of each month.

Just the basics of the new CHILD HEALTH COLLABORATIVE

How it started: To be sure that all children in Pasadena are provided with accessible health care including the uninsured and underinsured, the collaborative was launched by the Pasadena Child Health Foundation.

What is the Pasadena Child Health Foundation? The Pasadena Child Health Foundation (PCHF) is a private foundation whose purpose is to promote the mental and physical health of children in the Pasadena area.

What makes this project a collaborative? Several well-respected local agencies and institutions have come together to make this project possible. They are the Pasadena Child Health Foundation, the Pasadena Unified School District, Young & Healthy, Five Acres, the Pasadena Educational Foundation and the Pasadena Community Foundation.

What are the primary components of the Initiative? There are three primary components of the three-year funding initiative for the Child Health Collaborative:

1. Physical Health: The Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) will provide space, security services and maintenance of the facility.  It will also employ a nurse practitioner to staff the clinic during its expanded hours so that more children may utilize its services.

2. Mental Health: Five Acres will provide mental health services.

3. Outreach/engagement: Young & Healthy will strategically share information about expanded clinic services through the development of neighborhood outreach teams and provide expertise regarding health insurance information.

How is the Collaborative being funded? Funding comes from a charitable fund established at the Pasadena Community Foundation (PCF). By creating this fund where PCF holds the assets for the project, the Pasadena Child Health Foundation has created a vehicle for community support. Donations can be made to the Child Health Collaborative Fund at PCF and donors will receive full tax exemption. A three-year project, CHF has already committed $285,000 for the first year to open and fund the school-based clinic.

Our Vision: a collaborative health care system for the Pasadena Unified School District service area that delivers high-quality, comprehensive health care for all children in the ‘gap’ – that is, children who are uninsured or underinsured or have limited access to health care.  

To Realize Our Vision: we will serve as an active catalyst for the design and development of a new collaborative model – tentatively called the Pasadena Child Health Care Model – among community health care providers that is  

and offers  

We expect that when the new model is demonstrably successful, it will spread throughout our community.  

We also expect that the promise, and then the reality, of this model will enable us to raise significant funds from sources in and beyond the community to support the model, to spread it throughout our community and to increase our own endowment.  

The Challenge: There are already many children who are uninsured or underinsured, or have limited access to health care.These are the children in the ‘gap’, and their number is increasing.  

In most communities, care is not organized around a medical home to provide education, prevention and early intervention, coordinate care and services, spread financial risk among providers, and monitor access and quality of care, and public and private funding remains inadequate.   

The Response: As a first step, we will in January 2006 invite these organizations to join a consortium, tentatively called the Pasadena Child Health Care Consortium:  

When and as appropriate, we will also invite other community health organizations and agencies to engage in the process.   

In 2006 we convened a consortium working group (comprised of one or more representative of each consortium member) and asked them to design and develop the Pasadena Child Health Care Model. We asked the working group  

Members will share information on current funding mechanisms and grant resources, consider how their delivery systems can work collaboratively, and study how the PCHF can leverage its grant funds to bring more funding resources to the community.  

We will provide administrative support for the consortium, as well as make 2006 and 2007 grants to the consortium’s participating nonprofit organizations. We will ask the consortium to work toward implementing the model in January 2008, with substantial funding from PCHF.  

PCHF will also seek additional funding to support the service model and, when the model demonstrates success, to extend the service model throughout the community.  

The Consortium’s Work: Among other things, we expect the working group to commit to  

The Outcomes: While the shape of the Pasadena Child Health Care Model will be determined by consortium, and ultimately approved by the PCHF Board of Trustees and the participating organizations, we expect that the model will  

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