Proposing a healthy solution

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- After giving birth to her first child, a girl, Andrea Rico

was terrified.

Little Ellis was born two months premature, weighed only four pounds and

had to stay in a closely watched hospital crib for four weeks.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” said Rico, 30, in her native

Spanish. “I was very nervous.”

She didn’t know much about babies, certainly not premature ones.

Rico’s doctor referred her to a county public health nurse, Verlil

Hawthorne. Since then, a few times each month, Hawthorne has visited Rico

and Ellis at the College Park home that the mother, father Juan, and

child share with another family.

During a visit Wednesday, Hawthorne -- with a soft voice, wide eyes and a

warm smile -- measured squirmy Ellis with a tape measure, tested her

reflexes with rattles and pom-poms and helped arrange her doctors’

appointments.

In Spanish, the nurse explained what and when Rico should feed Ellis, who

weighs a healthy 14 pounds seven months after entering the world .

“She helped calm me down very much,” Rico said.

Hawthorne last week partnered with Families-Costa Mesa -- a local

organization providing free parenting classes, counseling and public

assistance referrals. She will refer her clients, including Rico, to

Families’ small offices, where they can exchange information and

emotional support with other parents. Counselors will guide those who

need public assistance through the labyrinth of forms and applications.

The partnership, along with 20 other programs offered by the Costa Mesa

outreach organization, is funded through state money collected from a

50-cents-per-pack tobacco tax.

California voters passed a ballot measure in 1998 for the tax, which the

state allocates to organizations providing health services for infants to

5-year-olds.

Families-Costa Mesa, which was given $80,000, was one of five Orange

County organizations which received state tobacco money earlier this

month.

The state funding for Families-Costa Mesa will end if voters approve

Proposition 28 on March 7. The measure would repeal the tobacco tax.

“If people believe funding more programs will be good for our children,

they’re smoking something other than cigarettes” said Ned Roscoe, leader

of the pro-Prop. 28 group, Cigarettes Cheaper!

“If parents have more money, they’ll spend it on their children ... The

tax is a socialist paradise myth,” he said.

But Leda Albright, Families-Costa Mesa’s program director, said programs

like hers will in the long run save Californians money. Many new

immigrants -- who make up a large portion of Costa Mesa’s population --

don’t apply for insurance for their children, Albright said.

Some don’t know how. Others are worried doing so would jeopardize their

immigration status. Their children don’t receive regular checkups and

immunizations. These children sometimes wind up in expensive emergency

rooms -- paid for by taxpayers in the form of state-provided medical

insurance -- for asthma attacks and other preventable emergencies.

“What better investment is there than in our children?” she said.

Mike Ruane, director of a state-formed, county-appointed commission

charged with distributing tobacco tax money, said only organizations with

a proven track record will receive tobacco tax money.

“Families-Costa Mesa was immediately ready to expand their services and

reach more people,” he said.

But with or without state money, Albright said she’s committed to

expanding the services the organization offers to parents and children.

While Families-Costa Mesa has already served thousands of families,

Albright said the demand for its programs continues to grow.

She hopes to hire more outreach workers, move to a bigger office and

offer more frequent immunization clinics.

“If the state money goes,” she said. “We’ll just have to sit down and

write more grants. Just like we’ve always done.”

With elections just a week away, teary-eyed Ellis only cared that her

physical exam would end soon.

And Andrea Rico, who doesn’t know much about Prop. 28, was only concerned

that her baby continues to grow.