Los Angeles County State of Children’s Health Report

Experts from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and L.A. Care Health Plan, the nation’s largest publicly operated plan, have released their first Los Angeles County State of Children’s Health report. The report, made up of four policy briefs, identifies core issues impacting kids and teens and makes recommendations to address disparities in children’s health and welfare in Los Angeles County.

Recommendation highlights include establishing new school-based programs to improve mental health services within educational settings, launching an effort to dispel vaccine myths to improve children’s health, and addressing resource challenges that children and youth with complex chronic conditions and those in the social welfare system experience in Los Angeles County and beyond.

Using the information provided by the children's health experts, Health Management Associates—an independent, national research firm specializing in publicly funded health care and human services policy—prepared four policy briefs with actionable solutions, including:

• Building Resiliency: How to improve the systems of care to improve wellbeing and address children’s mental health needs?
• Vaccine Catch-up and Misinformation: How to improve access to and provision of immunizations to promote children’s health?
• Supporting Children and Youth Involved in the Child Welfare System: How to improve the quality, appropriateness of support, and ease of access to care to address the unique needs of children involved in the child welfare system?
• Children with Complex Medical Needs Transition to Adulthood: How to facilitate the continuation of critical support as children with complex medical and behavioral needs “age out of care” eligibility?

The four policy briefs were produced with support from First 5 LA, HealthNet, Molina and Health Management Associates.