Getting a Healthy Start : Education: A school in Cudahy tries to give its students a boost by providing medical and other services, not only for children but also for their families.

By DUKE HELFAND

Nov. 7, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

One youngster arrived at the clinic’s front doors with vision so blurred she could only read the big E on the eye chart. Another showed up wheezing from asthma that hadn’t been treated in months.

At the “family center” next door, a parent sought advice about broaching the subject of drugs with her children. Another mother simply came to learn English, in hopes of helping her daughter with homework.

Welcome to the Elizabeth Street Learning Center in Cudahy, where administrators on Monday unveiled an ambitious new effort to create higher achievers by addressing health concerns and social needs in the community.

Nurses at a new campus health center are treating students for free and family members on a sliding scale, based on their ability to pay. The accompanying family center is providing parenting classes, mental-health counseling and other services at no charge. Plans also are in the works to send nursing students into the surrounding Spanish-speaking neighborhoods to teach families about healthy practices.

Elizabeth Street, whose students come primarily from immigrant Latino families, is among the first schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District to bring such comprehensive services to the community, administrators say.

Others schools have on-campus health centers, but Elizabeth Street, with 2,600 students from kindergarten to 12th grade, is one of the few offering medical treatment, counseling and education to students and their families.

The clinic and family center were created with a three-year $737,726 grant from the Michigan-based W. K. Kellogg Foundation, which funds innovative school projects. Architects of the plan--including the school district, Cal State Dominguez Hills and St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood--hope the project will be duplicated at schools across Los Angeles.

Bringing social services to campuses is a key component of the LEARN reform program being pioneered at more than 100 Los Angeles Unified schools, including Elizabeth Street.

“Even the best students won’t succeed in the classroom if they are sick, if they are disturbed, if they come from families that don’t function well,” said Sally Coughlin, the district’s assistant superintendent for student health and human services.

By all accounts, the Elizabeth Street school serves a community desperately in need of better health care.

Most families have no medical insurance and cannot afford to take their children to the doctor, so they often wind up in emergency rooms. And those who can pay for medical attention frequently can’t find it close by.

A study by the Community Health Foundation of East Los Angeles found just one primary-care physician for every 13,345 residents in Cudahy. By comparison, the study found one doctor for every 275 people in Beverly Hills and Malibu.

The potential for tragedy was underscored in June when a kindergartner at Elizabeth Street died of pneumonia, a condition that school administrators believe could have been cured with prompt medical attention.

The boy’s parents returned to Mexico immediately for the burial, leaving many unanswered questions for administrators, including whether he had seen a doctor. A relative told school officials that the family had no medical insurance.

Elizabeth Street administrators say that the new facility will help avoid such tragedies.

Nursing students from the Cal State campus will soon begin visiting the homes of Elizabeth Street pupils who show signs of serious health troubles, including tuberculosis. The nursing students will teach families ways to live healthier, such as keeping bathrooms and other areas extra clean to guard against the germs that cause communicable diseases.

Elizabeth Street students also are being trained as health educators. They already have spoken to classes at the school about how to detect common diseases and why to avoid such unhealthy practices as smoking. They hope to spread their information beyond the campus, speaking at area churches and visiting families door-to-door.

“The best weapon against sickness is education,” said David Lopez, 16, an 11th-grader who is part of the school’s “Health Watch” program. “If you know how to take care of yourself, you’ll avoid disease. Prevention is the key.”

Medical experts affiliated with the new facility hope the community outreach efforts draw more patients to the clinic.

“When you’re coming down with a cold, come to the health center and get it checked out,” said Sister Margaret Keaveney, St. Francis’ president. “The remedy might be quite simple. Don’t wait until you have walking pneumonia and need to be cared for in an emergency room.”

Many students say the clinic, which opened its doors in July, already has made a big difference in their lives.

Rafael Alonso, 12, said the nurses at the facility helped him control his asthma, which had caused him to miss school frequently in recent years. His family has no health insurance and could not pay for the medication needed to control his condition.

Janeth Pearl, the nurse practitioner in charge of the clinic, treated him with medication and an inhaler. She also called local drugstores to find an inexpensive inhaler for the boy’s family to purchase.

Now the youngster whose grades once suffered because of his condition is once again hitting the books.

“I can study harder. I can take more time to study,” said Rafael, a 7th-grader. “I don’t feel bad like I used to. It makes my grades get better.”

Rafael’s mother, Francisca, is grateful for the help. She says the nursing staff taught her the importance of keeping a dust-free home, and she now vacuums every day. Rafael, his mother said, is a changed boy since he began visiting the clinic.

“He’s become more active, more awake, more healthy,” said Francisca Alonso, who plans to take advantage of services at the family center, including English and citizenship classes. “I don’t have to worry about him getting attacks.

News of the clinic and family center is slowly filtering through Cudahy. Many of the school’s families are surprised to learn that there is inexpensive health-care available just blocks from their homes.

Eva Garcia is one of those who already has discovered the resource. She arrived recently complaining of a bad headache. Nurses found her blood pressure was dangerously high and rushed her to St. Francis Medical Center for treatment. Now she returns to the clinic once a month for treatment and plans to bring her daughter for checkups.

“The people who work here are precious,” Garcia said. “I’m at peace knowing there is a place I can take my daughter and myself. If something happens, she can be seen immediately. It’s a blessing.”