In the mid-1600s, a small group of women went into their neighborhood to build relationships with the community, learn about the people's needs, and, together with their neighbors, find solutions through direct community action. These pioneers were the Sisters of St. Joseph—founders and leaders who guide St. Joseph Health System and its ministries. Nearly 400 years later, that passion and tradition continues through our through our Community Benefit Program.
Each year, St. Jude Medical Center invests time and resources into local communities to increase access to healthcare for vulnerable populations and provide local residents with the support they need to make their neighborhoods healthier and safer.
Through the development and implementation of the key strategic elements of Community Health, Healthy Communities and Advocacy, we work to generate positive health outcomes, foster relationships and cooperation, and empower individuals to care for themselves and others.
St. Jude Medical Center invested $31,317,485 in community benefit in FY 09 a 24.3 percent increase from FY 08 ($25,203,000). St. Jude Heritage Healthcare invested $1,438,000 in community benefit in FY 09, a 12.9 percent increase from FY 08 ($1,273,677). For more information call (714) 992-3000, ext. 3862.
Community Benefit Report, FY 2009 (PDF)
Community Health Needs Assessment (PDF)
Healthy Communities Childhood Obesity Initiatives
- Healthy for Life Program
- Vida Sana Program
- Fullerton Healthy Neighborhood Initiative
- Richman Childhood Obesity Initiative
Health Services for the Underserved
- Neighborhood Health Center
- Mobile Family Health Clinic
- Children's Dental Center
- Access to Care Initiative
- Super Surgery Saturday
Senior Services for Frail Elderly
- Caring Neighbors
- Care Navigation
- Senior Transportation
- Caregiver Resource Center
Healthy Communities Childhood Obesity Initiatives
Healthy for Life
Children with dangerously high blood pressure. Kids unable to run more than a few feet. Childhood depression. These are some of the effects of the obesity epidemic among American children. In fact, one out of three kids are now considered overweight or obese.
Pediatricians are seeing an alarming rise in Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and "non-alcoholic" fatty liver disease - conditions once considered afflictions of the middle-aged and elderly. Obesity in children puts every major organ at risk and in ways that researchers are only beginning to understand, is far more destructive than packing on extra pounds later in life.
To help reverse the trend, St. Jude Medical Center is sponsoring a series of initiatives designed to combat childhood obesity: one of the most effective is the Healthy For Life school campaign. This comprehensive outreach includes exercise lessons, new sports equipment, weight training, kickboxing classes and interactive nutrition education. Body mass and other health indicators are measured and tracked, and a physician and dietician regularly visit to help educate kids and their families.
"You had kids that begin the year hypertensive because of their weight," explains Barry Ross, Vice President, Healthy Communities, St. Jude Medical Center. "By year's end, their blood pressure was normal and they were participating in activities they had previously only been able to watch."
And no one enjoyed seeing the difference more than the kids themselves. "At first, I could only walk around the track because running was too hard," explains 11-year-old Mario. "Now I can run twice around the track and do it faster than some of my friends."
Today, through a partnership between St. Jude, its sister hospitals and the St. Joseph Health System, the Healthy for Life program has grown to include over 50 schools in low-income neighborhoods throughout Orange County.
Vida Sana Program
Obesity is one of the most significant health issues in America today - particularly for Hispanic families and children. Vida Sana (Healthy Life) Program was created by St. Jude Medical Center to help families avoid the medical issues caused by obesity and begin making healthy choices. Vida Sana offers nutrition education and individualized support for Spanish-speaking students and parents at Richman School as well as families at the St. Jude Neighborhood Health Center. A bilingual pediatric nurse practitioner helps families make permanent changes to achieve a healthier lifestyle. The program includes: introducing families to fruits and vegetables available at a local farmers market; learning how to read labels and make smart choices at the grocery store; and connecting families to exercise options and other community resources. For more information, please call (714) 992-3000, ext. 3862.
Fullerton Healthy Neighborhood Initiative
The Fullerton Healthy Neighborhood Initiative, in which St. Jude Medical Center is a lead partner, is working with low-income neighborhoods to create policy changes to improve children's health and reduce obesity. A primary focus for the Neighborhood Initiative is establishing safe areas for children to exercise and recent successes include:
- creating a new playground in an underserved area
- the addition of a neighborhood basketball court
- arranging for an elementary school campus to remain open after school, providing a safe place for children to run and play
The Fullerton Healthy Neighborhood Initiative is also working with local schools to improve the nutritional value of lunch and snack options, as well as participating in a citywide effort aimed at gang prevention - so that someday every neighborhood can be a safe area for children to play and exercise.
This collaboration has been so successful, that St. Jude has expanded this initiative, to improve children's health and reduce obesity, to the cities of La Habra and Buena Park.
For more information about the Fullerton Healthy Neighborhood Initiative, please call (714) 992-3000, ext. 3862.
Richman Childhood Obesity Initiative
St. Jude will continue to address the staggering increase in childhood obesity by taking our successful programs and introducing them to new neighborhoods. A new program aimed to significantly reduce the rate of childhood obesity will be launched in FY11 to the low-income Richman neighborhood in Fullerton.
Health Services for the Underserved
St. Jude Neighborhood Health Center
If you took a low-income neighborhood and built a health center in the middle of it – what kind of impact could it have? Could it do more than just treat illness? Could it actually improve the lives of the community around it?
Three years after the St. Jude Neighborhood Health Center opened its doors, the answer is clearly yes. Nearly 1,800 individuals walk into the health center each month to get help with a long list of medical conditions, such as diabetes, prenatal care and depression. Built in the Valencia neighborhood of Fullerton, the beautiful $2.6 million facility offers a wide range of health care services, from routine check-ups to chronic disease management, as well as monthly cardiology and othopaedics clinics that provide access to needed specialty care.
In addition to medical services, the Neighborhood Health Center offers comprehensive dental care for adults and children, counseling and mental health services, innovative health education, and a wellness center where residents can exercise and lift weights. A community service project of St. Jude Medical Center, all of the center's services are offered to patients regardless of their ability to pay.
For more information about the St. Jude Neighborhood Center and its services, please call (714) 446-5100.
Downloadable Brochure
Downloadable Brochure in Spanish
Mobile Family Health Clinic
At churches and community centers throughout north Orange County, a scene repeats itself dozens of times each week. Children and adults, in need of everything from treatment for ear infections to prenatal care, wait for the arrival of the St. Jude Medical Center Mobile Family Health Clinic. Over 1,000 low-income children and adults receive medical care each year through this community service. The mobile health clinic makes regularly scheduled stops throughout underserved neighborhoods providing low-cost quality medical care.
The mobile health clinic provides a primary medical care home for hundreds of uninsured and underinsured families. But services go beyond meeting the immediate need for medical care: counseling, prescriptions, case-management, support groups, and help in accessing local, state and federal resources are all part of our commitment. Staff is also available to help individuals apply for health insurance.
For more information, please call (714) 446-5100.
St. Jude Children's Dental Center
After being turned away from several dentists because the family lacked the ability to pay, Alicia Gonzalez was overwhelmed when she learned the St. Jude Children's Dental Center would treat her son Gianluca. In addition to curing Gianluca's extensive gum infections, almost all of Gianluca's teeth required treatment for cavities and decay. Orthodonture was also needed to help correct overlapping teeth and partial dentures were created for the teeth that had to be pulled.
Today, the smiling 6-year-old kindergartner remembers to brush his teeth twice a day and his newly discovered self-confidence illustrates the importance of the dental center's services. "Because of St. Jude, Gianluca is happy now," says his mom. "I don't know what would have happened if we had not found this dental center."
Almost 40 percent of low-income children receive no dental care, meaning cavities, decay and infections often go untreated. The cost in pain, embarrassment and missed school can be enormous. Helping to create a solution is the St. Jude Dental Clinic, located in the Boys and Girls Club of Buena Park. One of the only clinics of its kind in Orange County, the Dental Clinic provides quality dental care – from routine cleanings to orthodontics – to hundreds of low-income and uninsured families each year.
For more information about the St. Jude Children's Dental Clinic, please call (714) 522-8723.
Access to Care Initiative
Beginning July, 2010, St. Jude Medical Center will move in a new strategic direction to increase the number of uninsured and underinsured patients who are seen at our Neighborhood Health Center and St. Jude Heritage Healthcare. This innovative approach will provide a medical home for thousands of low-income residents of north Orange County, ensuring they get the right level of care, at the right time—before treatable and controllable medical conditions develop into something much more serious.
Super Surgery Saturday
Each year, in partnership with AccessOC, St. Jude Medical Center physicians, nurses and support staff volunteer to give up their Saturday to provide free outpatient surgery to low-income individuals. In 2009, 19 outpatient surgeries were provided at St. Jude.
Senior Services for Frail Elderly
Caring Neighbors
Being alone never bothered 78-year-old Harriet Spree until constant bronchial infections left her so weak she couldn't even fix herself something to eat. "I'd lay awake at night feeling so afraid, knowing there was no one I could ask for help," Harriet explains. Finally, a neighbor grew alarmed over Harriet's deterioration and contacted St. Jude Medical Center's Caring Neighbors Program, a unique community service that provides volunteers to help frail and homebound elderly
With a goal of helping seniors maintain their independence and improve their quality of life, volunteers assist in a variety of ways: home repairs, grocery shopping, errands, laundry, even light housekeeping. But for many seniors, it is the companionship – having someone to laugh with – that is the most important benefit of this innovative program.
A volunteer began visiting Harriet each weekend to help with laundry, errands and to be a friend. A volunteer handyman in the program made badly-needed repairs to Harriet's house, fixing broken lights and leaky faucets, while some high school volunteers cleared the overgrown weeds and bushes from her yard. The effect of the regular visits and the new friendships is obvious in the almost miraculous change in Harriet. "Just knowing there's someone who will check on me has taken away the terror," she says.
If you know someone who might benefit from the Caring Neighbors Program or would like to volunteer, please call (714) 446-7064.
Care Navigation
Nationally, about 20 percent of frail older adults who are discharged from a hospital will end up being readmitted within weeks. Often, the readmission is not medically necessary but is prompted by a simple and preventable issue, such as confusion over medications or a failure to follow discharge instructions.
To help the frail elderly improve their health, maintain their independence and avoid unnecessary hospitalizations, St. Jude Medical Center created a new program called Care Navigation. Trained staff follows up with discharged patients through phone calls and home visits to help ensure they successfully complete key tasks, including: making and keeping an appointment with their primary care physician, filling and taking needed prescriptions, as well as understanding and following discharge orders. For up to two months after discharge, Care Navigators help patients overcome any obstacles that might prevent their progress toward better health: for example, resolving confusion over what medications should be taken, arranging transportation, and preventing delays in needed therapy or appointments.
The program targets three common but serious diagnoses: congestive heart failure, heart attack, and pneumonia. Remarkably, the readmission rate for these diagnoses has dropped significantly.
"By preventing unnecessary hospitalizations, this program has improved these patients' quality of life, helped them maintain their independence, and helped protect their emotional and mental well-being," explains Barry Ross, Vice President, Healthy Communities, St. Jude Medical Center.
For more information, please call (714) 446-7035.
Senior Transportation
A lack of transportation is a significant barrier for many frail elderly, causing doctors visits and medical care to often be missed or delayed. St. Jude's Senior Transportation Program provides non-emergency transportation to and from medical appointments at the medical center and affiliated physicians' offices.
Low-income seniors can take advantage of this service by calling (714) 446-7160.
Caregiver Resource Center
The Caregiver Resource Center (CRC) is a trusted partner for Orange County families who are coping with the physical, emotional, and financial responsibilities of caregiving. By providing families with individualized supportive services, CRC stands apart as the only Orange County agency focusing specifically on the needs of caregivers who are coping with a loved one's chronic illness, and since 1988, CRC has assisted thousands of families and professionals who care for an adult with a brain-impairing condition such as Alzheimer's, stroke, Parkinson's, head injury, or Huntington's disease, or who is over the age of sixty and requires daily assistance. For more information call (800) 543-8312 or (714) 870-3530 or online at caregiveroc.org
