SAN JOSE, CA-- Event
San Jose Councilmember Pete Constant visits Teen Van
6/19/06, 5:30pm
Starbird Youth Center
1050 Boynton Ave., San Jose MAP
 
San Jose City Councilmember Pete Constant understands the value of quality healthcare. “As a father of five,” said Constant, “I know how important good healthcare is to growing bodies.”
 
That’s why Councilmember Constant has worked to bring the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Mobile Adolescent Health Services Program, better known as the Teen Van, to his district of San Jose this summer. “The Teen Van provides an invaluable service to teens who have limited or no access to healthcare,” added Constant. “Now we have a chance to introduce these teens to information that will affect their life choices and create a stronger community.”
 
This Thursday (19) from 2pm-7pm and every other Thursday throughout the summer, the Starbird Youth Center in West San Jose will be a regular stop for the Teen Van. The Teen Van has long been known throughout the Bay Area for providing free comprehensive exams and medications for homeless and uninsured youths and young adults. The van also delivers something more intangible: a sense of purpose that helps many of these youths turn their lives around.
 
“We’ve helped thousands of kids in the Bay Area and are we’re looking to continue that commitment at the Starbird Youth Center,” said the van’s medical director, Seth Ammerman, MD, a clinical associate professor in adolescent medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. “By providing a medical home—where we get to know individuals well—and focusing on prevention and early intervention, we can help kids get off the streets and into housing, school, and jobs.”
 
The Teen Van already makes regular visits to the Emergency Housing Consortium in downtown San Jose two Thursdays a month, and with the addition of the Starbird Youth Center, even more of San Jose’s uninsured will get the health and medical attention they so desperately need. Each visitor to the van receives a comprehensive physical and mental health evaluation, along with interventions targeted to their individual circumstances. The van is staffed by health care providers including a physician, nurse practitioner, social worker, and registered dietitian who all provide confidential help to kids struggling with substance abuse, poor nutrition and chronic diseases like diabetes and asthma — all free of charge and without passing judgment. Additionally there is HIV counseling, birth control and other preventive education.
 
The van also provides an important financial benefit. Studies have shown that every dollar spent on the kind of services provided by the Teen Van saves $5 in future health care costs. The program has served as a national model of cost-effective health care for at-risk adolescents since its inception in 1996.
 
“We’re excited about being a part of the Starbird Youth Center,” said Ammerman, who said the new effort, if successful, could be a permanent stop beyond just the summer. “Thanks to Councilmember Constant, the youth of this community now have a medical home.”
 
(Councilmember Pete Constant will visit Dr. Ammerman and the Teen Van this Thursday (19) at 5:30pm. See the full schedule of Bay Area visits for the Teen Van here.)
 
About Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
Ranked as one of the nation's best pediatric hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford is a 272-bed hospital devoted to the care of children and expectant mothers. Providing pediatric and obstetric medical and surgical services and associated with the Stanford University School of Medicine, Packard Children's offers patients locally, regionally and nationally the full range of health care programs and services, from preventive and routine care to the diagnosis and treatment of serious illness and injury. For more information, visit www.lpch.org.