Community Health Buzz: Reaching People Where They Live

The expert insights of talking to your teenager. How to help kids of all ages cope with difficult events at home and in the news. Tips on stress relief and self-care for moms. Nutrition for healthy kids and families.

These and other compelling topics have made Community Health Buzz—Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’ virtual educational outreach series—a resounding success, with a loyal audience that has tuned in nearly every month since the webinars debuted in July 2020.

The series’ first topic nearly three years ago was inspired by its timing. “Parenting in the Time of COVID-19 for ages 0-10 and 11-17,” offered in both English and Spanish, captured an attentive audience from the start.

“Community Health Buzz grew out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the hospital’s strong desire to stay connected with its families and continue providing helpful information when we couldn’t meet in person,” says Ana Castro, project manager in CHLA’s Office of Community Affairs. Castro conceptualized and ran the English and Spanish-language sessions after hearing from community members and multiple organizations about the need for families to have access to accurate health and wellness information.

Initially, Children’s Hospital organizers anticipated being able to return to in-person educational programs quickly—as soon as COVID-19 infections subsided. That date moved further and further out into the future as the pandemic spread and impacted us all to unimaginable dimensions.

Community Health Buzz is just one reflection of Children's Hospital’s commitment to a larger definition of wellness, which embraces well families and well communities. “Education is a major part of that mission,” notes Castro.

Gaining a Following

From 2020 through 2022 and beyond, Community Health Buzz expanded its virtual programming and its audience, aided by an early collaboration with the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles, which promoted the free webinars to its community contacts.

“By and large, our families embraced the convenience of the online offerings and made them part of their everyday lives,” says Castro. Program organizers on CHLA’s Community Affairs team recall spotting attendees on screen as they cooked dinner or tuning in on their smartphones while driving to pick up their kids from school.

The programs featured faculty from Children’s Hospital, including General Pediatrics, Project HEAL, the AltaMed Pediatrics Clinic, the Child Life Program, Diabetes and Nutrition, the Literally Healing book program and more.

One of the most-attended sessions reflected a major concern of our times, with a focus on the dangers of fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid drug approved for use for pain relief, but at high risk for addiction and a major contributor to drug overdoses in the U.S.

More than 100 viewers signed on for the fentanyl program, led by Ilan Shapiro, MD, medical affairs officer at AltaMed Health Services.

Confronting Tough Topics

Other headline makers, such as the increasing rate of school shootings, also came on the Community Health Buzz radar.

In June 2022, Natalie Cruz, PsyD, a psychologist with the Project HEAL program at CHLA, led Spanish-speaking families through a webinar with ideas for talking to kids of all ages about traumatic events. Later that year, she took on another hard topic—spotting the signs of child abuse and ways to prevent it.

“As a clinical psychologist, it’s so important to reach our community members with information on the importance of caring about one’s mental health, just as we care for our physical health,” says Dr. Cruz. “The high levels of stigma around accessing mental health treatment often create barriers for youth and families who could benefit from this type of support.”

From July to August 2022, Dr. Cruz was among the clinicians who participated in a six-week series of weekly webinars in Spanish for families impacted by the immigration process.

These wellness workshops were in collaboration with La Linterna, an interdisciplinary, trauma-informed clinic that provides primary care, mental health screenings, legal consultations, and case management supports for migrant children.

Community Health Buzz has enabled Dr. Cruz to broaden her message. “From a social justice and public health perspective, I can reach more families while engaging in community workshops that further empower people with knowledge that can break the ripples of intergenerational trauma that impact so many community members,” she says.

COVID-19 Updates

Throughout 2021 and 2022, as COVID-19 and its variants still dominated the scene, Community Health Buzz presented the latest updates on “Myths and Facts About COVID-19,” “What You Need to Know about COVID-19 and Omicron,” and “COVID-19: Three Years Later,” offered in English and Spanish.

Communicating with teenagers has been among the most popular topics in the series. “Parents really want to better understand their teens,” says Castro.

That driving interest continues, with Community Affairs offering a webinar in April 2023 titled, “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Social Media and Teens.” The webinar was presented in English and Spanish.

The series has also focused on environmental issues, such as simple ways to minimize waste, featuring members of CHLA’s volunteer Sustainability Committee, and reducing one’s carbon footprint by using public transportation, led by representatives of L.A. Metro and Metrolink.

Future Programming

With in-person events back again, Community Health Buzz is evolving. Organizers are exploring the possibility of meeting in person, along with new collaborations, in particular partnering with Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The district’s “Family Academy” program hosts in-person and virtual events designed to empower families as they support their children from the early primary years to college and career success.

Together with Anya Griffin, PhD, and Xzania Lee, PhD, Dr. Cruz and the CHLA Community Affairs team participated in an LAUSD webinar on May 1, 2023, on “Suicide Prevention 101 for Parents: Recognizing Signs and What to Do,” which drew 350 attendees.

“By collaborating with the LAUSD with its wide reach throughout the Southern California region, we can impact more lives than ever,” says Castro.