The Center for Community Health promotes the public's health through community partnerships. |
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March 10, 2000 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Polinsky Children's Center Nancy Graff, MD Topic: Services offered at Polinsky Center **The first hour of the forum was a tour of the Polinsky Center. No photographs were permitted to protect the identity of the children. The Polinsky Center offers services to children ranging from infants to 18 years old. Many of these children do not have anywhere else to go. Either law enforcement professionals or social workers are responsible for bringing the children to the center. Children under various circumstances can be placed at Polinsky including death of a parent or guardian, abuse to the child by a parent or guardian, or an inability to stay in designated foster care. The staff at Polinsky is composed of health care professionals, law enforcement professionals, social service professionals, educators, counselors, and numerous volunteers. The center provides a safe environment for the kids and provides: food, housing, school facilities, and support in any other way as needed through their difficult time. The Polinsky Center is located in Kearny Mesa. Occupancy for the center varies day to day from 100 -200 occupants. Polinsky is set up as a short-term placement facility for the children. The purpose is to ensure that children have as normal as environment during their transitional period. The center houses a small clinic, nursery, school, space for recreation, cafeteria, and housing. The infants and toddlers are cared for in separate areas then the school age children. School is on the campus and held during regular school hours. For more information see http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/ . The school at Polinsky center is part of the San Diego County Office of Education Juvenile Court and Community Schools. POLINSKY SCHOOL OBJECTIVES In support of our mission, the Polinsky School staff pledges commitment to the achievement of the following objectives. 1. Provide a supportive learning environment where students can develop self-esteem, Self-confidence and problems solving skills which are the necessary ingredients for successful school and life experiences. 2. Provide a curriculum for all students, which is challenging, articulated among all Polinsky School teachers and consistent with local school district curriculum and state guidelines. 3.Develop and implement procedures to insure that students are appropriately assessed placed and provided the necessary transitional assistance for any and all future educational institutions. 4. Provide staff development for all Polinsky School personnel who will ensure curriculum, instructional consistency and the continual upgrading of skills. 5. Ensure appropriate learning environment by implementing plans and procedures to accommodate a growing and increasingly complex program: maintaining a safe, orderly and positive place in which to teach and learn. 6. Expect the best from the students and staff: - the best learning, the best teaching, the best support and the best management, and provide resources, guidance and leadership to help each person give his or her best effort. The health care is provided in the clinic as needed. At intake it is important to assess the health of children not only for their own wellbeing but also for the others that will be in contact with them. One of the most common problems that children can come in with is a case of lice. Other physical ailments are common and vary from child to child depending on their case. A mental health professional is also available as needed to meet and provide counseling for the children. The Polinsky Center provides a wide array of service to the children of San Diego. Howard Taras, MD Topic: Healthcare Access through Schools (HATS) The purpose of HATS is to get students' from low-income families insured. The program began as a pilot project with four schools in San Diego County in December 1999. Ten additional schools across the county have had a fulltime temporary outreach assistant on campus. Some insurance includes CHIP plans, Medicaid, California Kids, Kaiser Cares for Kids, and Healthy Families. Plans like California Kids and Kaiser Cares are for kids from undocumented families. A benefit is these families can enroll without fear of exposure to the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS). In San Diego the program is run out of the offices at the UCSD Division of Community Pediatrics. The first issue is to identify the location of insured children. This is achieved by tracking schools with low rates of uninsured students. One of the problems in contacting low-income families is accessibility to facilities and language barriers. Once schools with high levels of uninsured students have been identified there must be contact with district-level administrators. Without support at the district level the work of HATS would not be possible. As soon as the district gives its support for the program contact with the uninsured families must take place. The HATS program tackles this issue by employing bilingual outreach workers. The outreach worker goes to the students' schools to meet with parents to enroll their children in the appropriate insurance plan. The outreach workers are stationed at the schools for a 4-8 week period. The function of the outreach worker is to obtain and maintain contact with families until the application process is complete. Contact is made through various methods including flyers, telephone contact, and workshops. All training for the outreach worker is provided by UCSD staff and funded by UCSD grants. A benefit of the program is there is no additional costs to the schools. The schools sites need to dedicate some space and access to a telephone for the outreach worker. But the program was designed to decrease disruption to schools staff and day to day operations of the schools. Lessons learned:
Todd Galati, MA Topic: Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) The Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) is a revolutionary approach to education consisting of three integrated health education components: a Physical Education program, Health Education program, and School Nutrition program. The CATCH Main Trial was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) from 1991-1994 to determine whether these three school based components could have a positive effect on student health and related health behaviors in the areas of physical activity, healthy eating, and smoking. In all, 5,106 students from 96 elementary schools in four states (San Diego, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Austin, Texas) participated in measurements that evaluated the effectiveness of CATCH as they went from the third through the fifth grade. Measurements were also conducted to determine the effects CATCH had on the quality of the food served by the school nutrition program, the amount of time students spent engaged in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during PE class, and if the schools involved to become completely smoke-free campuses. CATCH was successful in decreasing student intake of fat, saturated fat, and total cholesterol; increasing student participation in vigorous physical activity outside of school; increasing the amount of time students were engaged in MVPA during PE class; decreasing the amount of fat and saturated fat in school breakfasts and lunches; improving student dietary knowledge and behaviors; and helping all intervention schools to become smoke-free campuses. The CATCH Tracking Study, funded by NHLBI, was a follow-up to the Main Trial that followed the CATCH cohort through middle school (grades 6-8). Although the intervention students received no additional education through middle school, the CATCH effects were still prevalent as these students still made healthier food choices and were more physically active than participants in the CATCH control group. The CATCH Investigators are currently measuring the long-term effects CATCH had on schools through the CATCH Institutionalization Study (CATCH-ON), which is also funded by NHLBI. There is one year of data collection in CATCH-ON (1998-1999), with all measurements being conducted with teachers, administrators, and other school staff at 19 of the original 24 schools at each of the four sites (76 out of 96 original schools nationally). CATCH-ON is designed to find out if the three CATCH components have been institutionalized by intervention schools and adopted by control schools from the Main Trial. Now that the results from the CATCH Main Trail have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Preventive Medicine, and the Journal of School Health, CATCH is available to interested schools and districts nationwide. In addition to the CATCH components for upper elementary grades (3-5), a K-2 Physical Education Program is now available. All CATCH materials are being published by Griffin Publishing Group, Inc., and are available to the public through Flaghouse, Inc. |