Migrant workers

Health

Migrant workers

CA farmworkers avoiding medical clinics

By Larry Valenzuela | CalMatters

Published December 1, 2025 12:00 PM

Farmworkers, wearing long sleeve shirts, gloves, hats, pants, and bandanas covering their mouths, carry buckets over the shoulders while walking through a field of produce. The sun shines as it rises in the background.

Farmworkers harvest banana peppers at a farm near the town of Helm on July 1, 2025.

(

Larry Valenzuela

CalMatters/CatchLight Local

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Topline:

Fearful of sharing sensitive information, California farmworkers started staying away from mobile medical clinics after President Trump took office. “There’s a lot of distrust,” said a doctor in Fresno County.

Why now: The doctors sense the decline in participation is connected to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement activity. University of California San Francisco mobile health clinic director Dr. Kenny Banh said patient visits to his rural mobile health vans started dropping at the beginning of the year, when President Donald Trump took office for his second term, vowing to crack down on illegal immigration.

Why it matters: With fewer patients showing up for preventive care, Banh said, people will inevitably get sicker and end up in the emergency room. That costs more money and threatens to overwhelm the health system.

Read on... for what getting health care to remote communities in California has been like.

On a scorching summer day, dozens of farm laborers paused their work picking banana peppers in a remote field 26 miles from Fresno and filed into a pop-up medical clinic. It was a chance to pick up medication and take basic health assessments, such as blood pressure and glucose monitoring.

For almost a decade, the University of California San Francisco has been fielding mobile clinics like this one in rural Fresno County to support a hard-to-reach population of unauthorized immigrants who otherwise would avoid routine health care.

The program gathered steam through the COVID-19 pandemic and during California’s decade-long expansion of health care to immigrants who are in the country without authorization. But this year, doctors are starting to notice that laborers aren’t showing up for care like they used to.

The doctors sense the decline in participation is connected to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement activity. UCSF mobile health clinic director Dr. Kenny Banh said patient visits to his rural mobile health vans started dropping at the beginning of the year, when President Donald Trump took office for his second term, vowing to crack down on illegal immigration.

“There’s a lot of distrust. I come from the university, I have a white coat; people are worried. We do as much as we can to tell them how we protect their data,” Banh said.

A person with medium skin tone, orange-dyed hair combed to the side, wearing a white doctor's coat with embroidery and patches that read "UCSF Fresno" and "UCSF Faculty Fresno" while standing in front of a row of trees.

According to UCSF, visits to their mobile clinics dropped by around 36% as enforcement activity increased in California. In 2024, the mobile clinics would see on average 34 patients per outing, but in the past few months, the number of patients had dropped to around 22 per outing. People are also less willing to sign up for Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for lower-income households, because they fear giving the government their data if they aren’t authorized to be in the country, Banh said.

It could get worse.

California scaled back the law that allows all income-eligible residents regardless of immigration status to receive health insurance through Medi-Cal by temporarily limiting enrollment next year. And, counties are bracing for Medicaid cuts under the budget law Trump signed earlier this year that they say will make it harder for them to sustain programs serving distinct populations, like the one that brings health care to rural farmworkers.

“It's going to be more restrictive in terms of work requirements, more regular re-enrollments, and more stringent requirements on states to comply with federal mandates,” Maria-Elena De Trinidad Young, an assistant professor of public health at UC Merced. “This is a push-out. The policy is really designed to restrict people from accessing Medicaid, or you know, in California, we call it Medi-Cal.”

A woman with light skin tone, wearing dark gray scrubs, takes the blood pressure of a person sitting on a foldable white plastic chair next to a white table with items on it. Another person wearing a blue sweater watches them.

Getting health care to remote communities

The mobile clinic Banh leads is part of a larger initiative from the Fresno Department of Public Health to reduce chronic and communicable diseases among hard-to-reach populations in the county. It gained funding most recently through a COVID-19 relief law that Fresno County steered to the clinics, which were led by UCSF and Saint Agnes Medical Center.

The COVID-19 money is running out, but the program has another year of funding locked in.

Farmworkers pulling crops from plants in a field. Some carry buckets in the foreground and background.

People wearing hoodies, hats, bandanas and other items covering their faces, line up under a metal structure with old farming equipment in the background.

Farmworkers line up in an equipment barn to get a check-up by the staff of UCSF-Fresno, part of the Rural Mobile Health program, at a farm outside of Helm on June 16, 2025.

(

Larry Valenzuela

CalMatters/CatchLight Local

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A person wearing a pink hoodie, blue hat, and green bandana covering their face, speaks with a person behind a white table with items using a laptop. People, out of focus in the background, stand in a line.

Farmworkers line up in an equipment barn to get a check-up by the staff of UCSF-Fresno, part of the Rural Mobile Health program, at a farm outside of Helm on June 16, 2025.

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Larry Valenzuela

CalMatters/CatchLight Local

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Clinics from both organizations can be found at community events, food distribution drives in rural communities, schools, and sometimes at farm working sites. The Saint Agnes mobile clinic van has two exam rooms inside for patients to receive care.

A person walks up steps into a mobile clinic. Others walk by the clinic.

A man with light skin tone, wearing navy blue scrubs, uses a stethoscope on a man with medium skin tone, gray mustache, wearing a tan hat and olive green long-sleeved shirt.

Patient and Parlier resident Javier Hernandez getting his blood pressure and blood sugar test during a check-up.

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Larry Valenzuela

CalMatters/CatchLight Local

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A close up of hands with blue latex gloves pulling blood sugar testing strips from a small cylinder container on a white table with other items.

Doctor Nicholas Gill is pulling blood sugar testing strips from a container during a check-up examination in the Saint Agnes Mobile Health Unit mobile clinic, parked in the City Heritage Park parking lot in Parlier on May 16, 2025.

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Larry Valenzuela

CalMatters/CatchLight Local

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According to Ivonne Der Torosian, vice president of community health and well-being with Saint Agnes Medical Center, the program is designed to provide medical school students an opportunity to serve the community and create access to health care.

“We are explicitly contracted to go out to rural Fresno County and serve agricultural workers, partner with employers of those farming workers, and also provide services to their families.”

An over the shoulder view of a close up showing a person, wearing a blue sweater and blue latex gloves, pricking the finger of a person's hand, who is wearing a yellow safety vest.

Community health workers also provide health education and make referrals to nearby primary care providers for individuals who cannot be treated on-site.

“We do basic screenings, including primary and preventive care, for many of the families we serve. We’re looking at connecting them to primary care providers,” Der Torosiran said. “We are providing vaccinations, we are providing glucose monitoring, and looking at their hypertension and blood pressure readings. So, really basic services they would get in a primary care setting."

A man with medium skin tone, wearing navy blue scrubs and blue latex gloves, takes the blood pressure of a person wearing a red shirt who is sitting next to a table with items on it outside a mobile clinic.

No nearby hospital

Dr. Navdeep Lehga, a resident physician, recently began a shift in the Saint Agnes medical van in Mendota’s Rojas Pierce Park. It’s an agricultural community just less than one hour west of Fresno. A line of people awaited her on the curb to pick up food from the distribution center and to see her and her team for a check-up.

A person, out of focus in the foreground, sits on a green chair next to a blue bike in a parking lot with a mobile clinic parked across them with signage on it that reads "Saint Agnes Community Health Outreach." A park and playground is visible behind the mobile clinic.

As the morning progressed, Navdeep saw patient after patient in the mobile clinic's exam room or went outside to see patients in the parking lot, checking blood pressure with a gauge strap on their patients' arms and glucose levels with finger pricks.

A woman with medium skin tone, wearing teal scrubs, reaches for supplies on a desk in a mobile clinic. A blood pressure gauge is posted on a wall, out of focus in the foreground.

A close up of a person, wearing teal scrubs and blue latex gloves, checking the blood sugar of a person, who's arm is resting on a white table.

Dr. Navdeep Lehga checks a patient’s blood sugar in the exam room of the Saint Agnes Mobile Health Unit clinic, parked in the lot of Rojas Pierce Park in Mendota on Aug. 28, 2025.

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Larry Valenzuela

CalMatters/CatchLight Local

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A woman with medium skin tone and brown hair, wearing teal scrubs, writes on a paper on an exam table. A person with medium skin tone, wearing a black shirt, sits next to the table slightly out of frame, and another person, wearing navy scrubs, stands a little away while clasping his hands.

Dr. Navdeep Lehga checks a patient’s blood sugar in the exam room of the Saint Agnes Mobile Health Unit clinic, parked in the lot of Rojas Pierce Park in Mendota on Aug. 28, 2025.

(

Larry Valenzuela

CalMatters/CatchLight Local

)

She said most of the patients she sees are farm workers and immigrants. Much of the rural population doesn’t have easy access to medical care — the nearest hospital is 35 miles away. Some of her patients may seek out the medical van for primary care because they don’t know where else to go.

“That's why they come here. We give them the gist of what's going on. But we're limited on our supplies and what we can check,” she said.

Lehga says the number of people coming to the van has slowed down since immigration enforcement has kicked up. She has heard patients speaking to staff during the intake session talk about their fears of coming to the van and seeking out health care after a summer of intensified immigration raids.

A woman with medium skin tone, wearing teal scrubs and a long sleeve shirt underneath, speaks with a person, slightly out of focus in the foreground, wearing a hat and green shirt. Another person speaks with the person sitting. In the background is a person wearing orange scrubs next to another person wearing a gray flannel shirt and hat. All are underneath a canopy.

“We did notice there used to be a lot more patients coming before they have gotten scared and they don't want to because they're not sure who will show up,” Lehga said. “They did feel comfortable before coming here because they knew it was safe. Now I think patients are more scared to come in general just because they don't know who can show up.”

Dr. Arianna Crediford, chief resident physician with Fresno St. Agnes Rural Mobile Health, said that visits to the van have dropped by 15 to 20% this year.

“We can speculate that it’s because of the issues with immigration at this time, that seems to be a big influence with farmworkers and food packing,” she said.

Crediford said she’s heard some patients mention the worry about seeking care and what that might imply for them but they have made it clear that they don’t collect immigration information and that they don’t need to talk to them about it at all.

A woman with medium skin tone, wearing a blue sweater, checks the blood sugar of a person sitting on a chair, wearing an orange safety vest, hat, and bandana covering their face. There are other tables with people and farm equipment in the background.

“The idea that people have to be scared to receive health care is heartbreaking. It would really put their health conditions at risk, conditions that require weekly sometimes monthly follow-up. We’re the last line of defense that they’re able to go to besides emergency rooms when they come in with an actual life-threatening event. The day this population can’t comfortably and safely seek care their health is going to be put in danger because of that,” said Crediford.

The population, which is often uninsured, suffers from high rates of hypertension, diabetes or high blood sugar, and high cholesterol, oftentimes without treatment, Banh said. Frequently, the rural health team is the only health care provider patients see.

A silhouette of a person carrying a bucket full with produce on their shoulder.

With fewer patients showing up for preventive care, Banh said, people will inevitably get sicker and end up in the emergency room. That costs more money and threatens to overwhelm the health system.

“People don’t disappear because you changed policy. They still need care. What you’re doing is delaying care until the outcomes are worse, and there’s not much you can do but hospitalize the patient,” he said.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Transportation & Mobility

TSA officer update

Passengers pay fees as workers go without pay

By Joel Rose | NPR

Published March 13, 2026 4:45 PM

(

Annabelle Gordon

AFP via Getty Images

)

Topline:

Fees paid by airline passengers keep piling up, even as airport security officers work without pay.

Where things stand: TSA officers have been working without pay since funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsed on February 14th. They've already missed part of one paycheck, and many security officers received no money at all in their paychecks on Friday as the partial shutdown approached the one-month mark.

What travelers are seeing: Passengers have encountered hours-long security lines at major airports in Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans, Austin, and elsewhere, as many TSA officers have called out sick. Some officers have taken on second jobs in order to make ends meet, Jones said.

What about those fees? Airline passengers are still paying the security fees that help to fund the TSA's budget, even as the partial shutdown drags on.

Millions of spring break travelers are heading to the airport this month, and Johnny Jones was hoping to be one of them. But the ongoing shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security forced his family to cancel its vacation plans.

"I won't be traveling anywhere, but I'll be helping out getting people to where they're going," said Jones, a TSA security officer at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. He also serves as the Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 100, which represents about 45,000 TSA officers nationwide.

Those TSA officers have been working without pay since funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsed on February 14th. They've already missed part of one paycheck, and many security officers received no money at all in their paychecks on Friday as the partial shutdown approached the one-month mark.

"They're panicking, they're scared, they're afraid. And they don't know what they're going to do," Jones said in an interview. The majority of TSA employees work paycheck to paycheck, Jones said, and don't have enough savings to cover their expenses. "They're just flat-out not paying their bills because they don't have any money," he said.

Passengers have encountered hours-long security lines at major airports in Houston, Atlanta, New Orleans, Austin, and elsewhere, as many TSA officers have called out sick. Some officers have taken on second jobs in order to make ends meet, Jones said.

"The officers can't afford to come to work. The gas is expensive right now," said Suzette, a security officer at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport who's worked for TSA for more than two decades. She requested we only use her middle name because she is not authorized to speak to the media.

A cart piled with boxes is moved by two people in uniform.

"People have childcare. You have a mortgage that you have to pay," Suzette told NPR's Morning Edition. "Where are you getting the money from to pay?"

DHS has blamed the long lines on Democrats in a series of social media statements over the weekend, though Democrats say Republicans are also to blame.

Democrats have refused to approve DHS's budget unless GOP lawmakers and the White House agree on changes to how immigration officers operate after the fatal shooting of two American citizens in Minneapolis. Senate Democrats introduced bills to fund TSA and other components of DHS instead, but Republicans blocked them.

More than 100,000 DHS workers will miss their first full paycheck Friday, according to the White House, including employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the TSA.

Meanwhile, airline passengers are still paying the security fees that help to fund the TSA's budget, even as the partial shutdown drags on. The passenger fee, also known as the aviation security fee or the September 11 security fee, was enacted when the TSA was created after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.

"That fee has underwritten part of the TSA budget for all those years," explains former TSA administrator John Pistole. Airlines collect $5.60 for each one-way segment on a domestic flight, Pistole says. And that money has continued to accrue, even though none of it is finding its way into the bank accounts of TSA workers.

Security officers also went more than 40 days without a paycheck last year during the partial government shutdown last year. The back-to-back shutdowns have only made it harder for the agency to attract and retain workers, Pistole said, as more than 1,000 security officers resigned from TSA during October and November of last year.

A TSA Pre check sign is visible in the foreground of a checkin desk at an airport.

"The longer it went, the more officers who resigned," Pistole said. "Not knowing how long the shutdown will continue, [they] will basically look for other work, because surprise, they have bills to pay."

An additional 300 TSA officers have quit during the current shutdown, according to the White House.

Travel and aviation industry leaders say all of this is creating unnecessary stress and confusion for passengers.

"Travelers should be concerned that Congress has created unpredictability in the system. They've created a system where we don't know whether we should show up at the airport one hour ahead, four or 5 hours ahead," said Geoff Freeman, the CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.

Freeman had urged the Trump administration to restart Global Entry, a program that allows pre-approved, low-risk travelers to get expedited processing when they enter the U.S. from abroad. DHS moved to reopen the program this week.

Now Freeman is hopeful that a change in leadership at DHS will help to break the stalemate over funding for the department. Last week, President Trump announced that he is removing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and wants Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R.-Okla., to take over.

"The politics of the shutdown are complicated," Freeman said in an interview. "Changes at the Department of Homeland Security create additional opportunities for compromise," he said, though he expects the shutdown to continue into next week at a minimum.

NPR's Milton Guevara contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

A widening gap

The report details disparities between L.A. County’s wealthiest communities — where life expectancy went up — and poorer ones, where it dropped.

“What we saw in terms of change over time is that the areas that were already doing well are doing better,” Lewis said.

The gap between the longest-living and shortest-living communities is more than 16 years. Average life expectancy in Westwood was 88.1, compared to 71.8 in the Antelope Valley community of Sun Village.

Lewis said she drove to Sun Village during the research process and found no grocery stores and no sidewalks.

"It would be very hard to make healthy choices in that environment,” she said.

While median personal earnings rose countywide since the last report, they didn’t keep pace with dramatically rising housing costs.

In every L.A. County neighborhood, a resident earning the local median salary would need to work more than 40 hours a week to afford median housing costs, according to the report. In 31 L.A. County neighborhoods, that figure exceeds 80 hours.

The report sorts L.A. County neighborhoods into five tiers of well-being, based on where they fall on the Human Development Index, from “precarious L.A.” to “glittering L.A.”

No community in the county scored below 3.0 on the HDI and landed in the lowest tier in the 2026 report. That’s an improvement from 2017, when six areas fell into that category, including Cudahy, Westmont and Southeast Los Angeles.

The latest report examined L.A. County death records between 2019 and 2023. The earlier report had looked at 2010 through 2014.

One bright spot, according to researchers, was that educational attainment improved significantly. The share of adults with a bachelor's degree rose by more than 18%.

“Glittering LA” (HDI above 9.00): 194,500 people, 2% of the county. Eight places, including Brentwood-Pacific Palisades, Manhattan Beach, Beverly Hills and Malibu. Life expectancy 86.8, median earnings $99,200.
“Elite Enclave LA” (HDI 7.00 - 8.99): 1,461,700 people, 15% of the county. Thirty-two communities mostly along the coast, the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Gabriel Valley foothills. Life expectancy 84.1, median earnings $70,400.
“Main Street LA” (HDI 5.00 - 6.99): 4,216,200 people, or 44% of the county population. The most populous tier, including suburban areas of the southern and eastern county, the Santa Clarita and San Fernando Valleys. Life expectancy 81.7, median earnings $47,000.
“Struggling LA” (HDI 3.00 - 4.99): 3,823,700 people, 39% of the county. The second-most populous tier. Has the largest share of foreign-born residents at 36.3%. Life expectancy 78.9, median earnings $35,200.
“Precarious LA” (HDI below 3.00): This category is empty this time. In 2017, six communities fell here: Cudahy, Westmont, Lennox, East Rancho Dominguez, Florence-Graham, and Southeast Los Angeles. All have risen above 3.0 since.

Measure of America's breakdown of the '5 L.A.s', rated via the Human Development Index, or HDI.

Disparities abound

Latinos saw the steepest decline in life expectancy of any major racial group, falling 3.7 years to 80.7 years of age.

The report attributes this largely to COVID-19, noting that Latino Angelenos are disproportionately concentrated in frontline jobs and are more likely to live in overcrowded, multigenerational households, both factors that increased exposure to the virus.

Asian Angelenos have the longest life expectancy, at 86.2 years. Black Angelenos live to 72.9, on average, and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders to just 71.2.

Black mothers remain nearly four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white or Asian women.

Lewis said the disparities across neighborhoods are based on policy choices.

“There's nothing natural or inevitable about inequality,” Lewis said. “It was really decades of deliberate decisions, policies and investments designed to advantage some groups of Angelenos while excluding others that really created this landscape of inequality we see today.

A table ranking the top ten and bottom ten L.A. County neighborhoods according to Human Developent Index score.

What comes next

Lewis said she hopes local officials and community organizations use the report to guide planning, programming and investment decisions.

After the first report in 2017, the city of Los Angeles relocated some workforce development sites based on neighborhood HDI scores, and the county Department of Mental Health used the findings for needs assessment, according to the report.

Kalene Gilbert, a coordinator at the L.A. County Department of Mental Health, said the department used the 2017 report to decide where to pilot community school programs, targeting areas with the worst education disparities.

“If we're really serious about equity in L.A. County, it's reports like this that really help make that a reality because this provides that understanding of where the need is at a really detailed level,” Gilbert said.

The report’s underlying data end in 2023, before several major crises hit L.A. County.

The January 2025 Palisades and Eaton fires destroyed thousands of homes and displaced tens of thousands of people.

Federal immigration enforcement raids that summer disrupted daily life in immigrant communities, leading the Board of Supervisors to declare a state of emergency in October.

The passage of the federal budget bill in July 2025 cut $750 million in annual funding for the county's public health system, according to the report.

None of that is reflected in the latest HDI scores.

Gilbert said those crises are already affecting the people DMH serves. She said immigration raids have made some clients afraid to leave their homes for appointments, forcing the department to shift toward telehealth.

“We consistently hear concern about just even coming out into the community,” Gilbert said.The report's interactive portal, where residents can explore data for their neighborhoods, is available at Measure of America's website.

Health

Mental health program

New program expands youth services in Chinatown

By Brenda Fernanda Verano | Caló News

Published March 13, 2026 2:00 PM

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, a woman with medium skin tone, wearing a red suit, and a man with medium skin tone, wearing a gray sweater, cut a ribbon with assistance from a person with light skin tone, wearing a white shirt and black pants. They all stand in front of signage that reads "GH."

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass at the ribbon-cutting celebrating the new location for the GCAOP in Chinatown.

(

Brenda Verano

Caló News

)

Topline:

In the heart of L.A.’s Chinatown neighborhood, a 6,000-square-foot space looks to provide mental health care services for Los Angeles Unified School District students, as well as for kids and young adults ages six to 25.

Why it matters: For years, mental health has been a top concern for L.A. youth, many of whom experience high-level stressors, including housing insecurity, gun violence and discrimination in and outside school. Last year, the L.A. County Youth Commission’s annual report revealed mental health was the top concern for youth, with education and employment falling close behind.

More details: With a new location for its Child and Adolescent Outpatient Program inside the Chinatown Service Center, the Gateways Hospital and Mental Health Centers hope to reach more children and youth who can benefit from therapy, medication management and psychiatric care.

Read on... for more on the ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier this week.

In the heart of L.A.’s Chinatown neighborhood, a 6,000-square-foot space looks to provide mental health care services for Los Angeles Unified School District students, as well as for kids and young adults ages six to 25.

For years, mental health has been a top concern for L.A. youth, many of whom experience high-level stressors, including housing insecurity, gun violence and discrimination in and outside school.

Last year, the L.A. County Youth Commission’s annual report revealed mental health was the top concern for youth, with education and employment falling close behind.

The commission surveyed 856 youth across the five different districts of the county, 524 of whom listed mental health as a top concern. The majority of the youth who selected mental health as their main concern were Latino and system-impacted.

Witnessing rising health care costs and deep cuts to mental health funding in California led Gateways Hospital and Mental Health Centers to expand their critical outpatient services for youth, also known as their Child and Adolescent Outpatient Program (GCAOP).

With a new location for its GCAOP inside the Chinatown Service Center, the Gateways Hospital and Mental Health Centers hope to reach more children and youth who can benefit from therapy, medication management and psychiatric care.

On Tuesday, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the new location for the GCAOP in Chinatown. She began her remarks by thanking Gateways Hospital and Mental Health Centers “for stepping up,” with the new facility expected to serve more than 230 youth annually.

“This place will provide the healing needed to prevent challenges from escalating into crises,” Bass said. “Make no mistake, we have a long way to go, but my administration and leaders like those at Gateways are turning the tide on major challenges like mental health that have been ignored for decades.”

Last year, the U.S. Department of Education, under the Trump administration ,announced it would stop funding roughly $1 billion in grants that were meant to boost the ranks and training of mental health professionals who work in schools. The department claimed that the grants were awarded under the Biden administration, a decision that was said to conflict with the current administration's priorities.

Aside from terminating the 2025 grants, the department also proposed an additional reduction for the 2026 fiscal year. These consecutive cuts would reduce resources for school counselors and psychiatrists, something that for school districts like LAUSD can be detrimental.

As L.A. Public Press reported earlier this year, LAUSD enrollment has dropped due to ICE raids spreading across L.A. County and many LAUSD staff, including counselors, have indicated that in times like these, the hiring of more trained attendance counselors and investing in mental health support are vital.

Despite that, for many LAUSD campuses, especially in low-income neighborhoods, staff shortages, including counselors and therapists, are a reality.

To combat some of the local shortages when it comes to mental health, the Gateways Hospital and Mental Health Centers are partnering with LAUSD to provide outpatient services to students, including individual and family therapy and psychiatric evaluations across more than 15 of the district's campuses.

“Our program is designed to meet young people where they are, whether that’s in school, at home, or here in the new Chinatown Service Center location,” said Charlotte Bautista, director of Gateways Child and Adolescent Outpatient Program. “We know early access to mental health care can change the trajectory of a child’s life, and we are providing a safe space where families can heal, grow and thrive together.”

Charlotte Bautista, director of Gateways Child and Adolescent Outpatient Program, said this expansion also allows for more students and families who deserve consistent, high-quality care to be reached, reducing waitlists and out-of-pocket costs.

“Our program is designed to meet young people where they are, whether that’s in school, at home, or here in the new Chinatown Service Center location,” she said. “We know early access to mental health care can change the trajectory of a child’s life, and we are providing a safe space where families can heal, grow and thrive together.”

This story was produced by CALÓ News, a news organization covering Latino/a/x communities.

It's our spring member drive!

The Brief

Getting health care to remote communities

No nearby hospital

A widening gap

Disparities abound

What comes next

It's our spring member drive!

Hey, LA listener!

The Brief

Getting health care to remote communities

No nearby hospital

Keep up with LAist.

A widening gap

Disparities abound

What comes next