A mom of three left the celebration armed with resources to get coverage for a needed dental procedure.
On March 16, Venice Family Clinic and Hawthorne School District together celebrated the opening of a new clinic. Offering primary care, behavioral health and vaccinations, the HSD Health and Wellness Center at Zela Davis School will support the well-being of the school district’s 6,900 students, their families and staff, as well as residents throughout Hawthorne.
To mark the occasion, HSD and Venice Family Clinic hosted a community celebration on campus with giveaways, games and interactive informational booths. Los Angeles dignitaries spoke and cut the ribbon to officially open the clinic as families enjoyed paletas, music and a scavenger hunt to learn about what Venice Family Clinic offers for patients, including mental health support, health education, Early Head Start, health insurance enrollment and more. HSD representatives were also onsite sharing information about preschools, school care and other available services.
Mom Yamiled Negrete came to the event with her three children, five-year-old Ruben, four-year-old Eli, and one-year-old Anthony. Negrete had recently moved to the neighborhood and was in the process of transferring her two older boys to Zela Davis. She was excited she’d be able to get her family medical care right on campus where her children would be enrolled.
“It’s good because I won’t have to struggle, worrying about how I’m going to get the kids to their doctor’s appointments” Negrete said.
Negrete herself was also able to begin getting health care assistance that day. She stopped at Venice Family Clinic’s Health Insurance Enrollment booth, where Senior Health Insurance Enrollment Specialist Sandra Martinez was sharing information with visitors. Negrete told Martinez that she was struggling with dental pain. She’d been told she needed a root canal, but that her Medi-Cal had run out and reinstating it wouldn’t cover the root canal—unless she was pregnant. “That was totally incorrect,” Martinez said. A lapse in Medi-Cal dental coverage in 2014 had been reinstated in 2018. The person who had told her about her Medi-Cal dental care eligibility had given Negrete outdated information.
Martinez encouraged Negrete to get in touch with her so they could help reinstate her coverage. Negrete left the booth armed with a pamphlet, phone number and a big sigh of relief.
The new HSD Health and Wellness Center at Zela Davis School will be open Mondays and Tuesdays from 1 – 5 p.m. Learn more about the Clinic and our partnership with Hawthorne School District in this story.