o Venice - Venice Family Clinic

Venture into Venice
Encounters
The Semiannual Newsletter of
MAY 19-20
The Whole Person,
The Whole Family
Details on Page 2
With more sites and more services than ever,
Venice Family Clinic has transcended its role
as a health clinic and now functions more like
a health system for its patients.
www.theveniceartwalk.org
In Memory of Venice Family Clinic’s Recently Departed Supporters
Dr. Richard B. Aronsohn, Newton Becker, Dr. Lester Breslow, Arlene Bronner, E. Richard “Rick” Brown, Gilbert “Gil” Cates, Jack Cherbo,
Jack Colker, Robert L. Feldman, Rose Freeman, Edna Gyepes, Gwendolyn Joann Lauterbach, Dr. William E. Molle, Gail Nochimson, Richard Elliot Orgell,
Paul H. Pollock, Shirley Hope Pollock, Kenneth Price, Marvin Jack Saul, Keith R. Schrupp, Robert F. Seiden, Jan Siegel, Mace Siegel, Richard (Ric) Waite
Non-Profit Org.
US Postage
PAID
Mercury Mailing
Systems Inc.
604 Rose Avenue • Venice, CA 90291
PHONE 310.664.7910 • FAX 310.396.8279
www.venicefamilyclinic.org
Address service requested
Printed on 55% recycled, FSC-Certified paper
Staff pediatrician Basia Tcheng, MD, examines Jocelyn Martinez, 5,
and her brother Jose, 2. Photo: Margaret Molloy
Spring 2012
MAY 19-20
Venture into Venice
Don’t miss the NEW Venice Art Walk & Auctions,
hosted by Google Los Angeles. Enjoy three exclusive
Art & Architecture Tours, the specially curated
Silent Art Auction, taste-bud-tingling food trucks,
live music and peformance artists, and family art
activities at Venice’s largest community celebration!
Art & Architecture Tours
• East of Lincoln, Saturday, May 19
• Between the Pacific and Abbot Kinney, Sunday, May 20
• Artists’ Studios across Venice, Sunday, May 20
Specially Curated Silent Art Auction
Google becomes an art gallery! Bid on more than 300 original
paintings, sculptures, and photographs from the biggest names
in the Southern California art scene. Sunday, May 20
Introducing Venice Art Walk & Auctions 2012 signature artist
David Trulli
“Tranquility Base”
2012 Limited-Edition T-Shirt $22
2012 Limited-Edition Poster $20
Tickets, merchandise, tour descriptions, and
additional information at www.theveniceartwalk.org
The Fabulous Sponsors
Providing free, quality health care
to people in need
VENICE FAMILY CLINIC
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Brian D. Kan, MD, Chair
Ashley Johnson, Secretary
Jeffrey E. Sinaiko, Treasurer
Susan Adelman
Mayer B. Davidson, MD
Paula Davis
Richard DeArmond, MSW
Aime Espinosa
William Flumenbaum
Luis Galvez
Rev. Lynda D. Gray
Crispin Jimenez
Neil H. Parker, MD
Bill Resnick, MD
Paul M. Saben, MBA
Flora Santacruz
Stewart Seradsky
Lourdes Servin
Marsha Temple, Esq.
Carmen Thomas-Paris
VENICE FAMILY CLINIC
FOUNDATION
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Susan Adelman
Carol L. Archie, MD
Neal Baer, MD
Rick Bradley
Lowell C. Brown, Esq.
Mayer B. Davidson, MD
Susan Fleischman, MD
William Flumenbaum
Chester F. Griffiths, MD, FACS
Jimmy H. Hara, MD
Joan Herman
Ashley Johnson
Joanne Jubelier, PhD
Brian D. Kan, MD
Deborah Laub
Constance Lawton
Lou Lazatin
Harley Liker, MD, MBA
Tracey Loeb
Gail Margolis, Esq.
Melissa Martinez
Frank Matricardi, Dr PH
Viren Mehta
Wendy Smith Meyer, PhD, LCSW
William D. Parente
Hutch Parker
Neil H. Parker, MD
Bill Resnick, MD
Paul Saben
Fern Seizer
Alan Sieroty
Jeffrey E. Sinaiko
Marsha Temple, Esq.
Russel Tyner, AIA
Michael S. Wilkes, MD, PhD
Leisa Wu
Clinic Physician Authors Groundbreaking
Childhood-Weight-Management Study
On a weekday evening in a Mid City neighborhood, the
sound emanating from Irasema Vasquez’s home after dinner
is not a television laugh track but rather the shouts of five
boys playing in the yard.
“This was the easiest change,” Vasquez says. “We spend more
time playing outside, and less time inside the house watching
TV. It was easier to make changes with the little kids than
with the big kids. The older kids are more set in their ways.”
The changes she refers to are the ones she learned in a
groundbreaking research program, Pediatric Overweight
Prevention through Parent Training, led by Venice Family
Clinic staff pediatrician Wendy Slusser, MD, MS, from 2006
to 2009. The study sought to measure whether parent
training, based on social learning theory, combined with
evidence-based interventions could reduce the risk of
overweight in Latino children 2-4 years old living in
low-income homes.
Over the past 40 years, obesity rates among children have
tripled in the United States, and Latinos have an even
higher prevalence of overweight early in life compared to
other ethnic groups. In addition, overweight children are at
increased risk of weight and other health problems later in
life—overweight 3-5 year olds, for example, have triple the
risk of their healthy-weight counterparts of becoming obese
adults—so early interventions are essential.
“This is the first pilot intervention
study that reversed the weight gain
seen in preschool Latino children
living in low-income families.”
- Wendy Slusser, MD, MS, Staff Pediatrician
“This is the first pilot intervention study that reversed
the weight gain seen in preschool Latino children living
in low-income families,” Dr. Slusser explains. “The
intervention was unique because it blended nutrition,
physical activity, and parenting topics. Mothers learned
from each other and practiced the skills at home.”
Vasquez and her children were among more than 120
families who participated in the randomized, controlled
study, which assessed the effectiveness of a seven-week
intervention consisting of weekly one-and-a-half-hour
classes by contrasting changes in body-mass index (BMI)
percentiles of children whose parents received the training
with wait-listed subjects.
Results of the study were published in the February 2012
issue of Childhood Obesity, guest-edited by Michelle
Obama. Researchers found that after one year, there was
2
Wendy Slusser, MD, MS, is a staff pediatrician at Venice Family Clinic’s
Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center. Photo: Margaret Molloy
a 9-percent reduction in overweight and obese children in the
parent-training intervention group, while a control group
had a 16-percent increase in overweight and obese children.
While only three of her then-five children participated in
the program, Vasquez saw the change in all of them. But
she notes that the biggest change took place in herself,
in how she parents.
“In terms of food, we pay more attention to portion size
and eat more vegetables,” she says, noting that there are
some foods, like celery, that the kids eat now that they
wouldn’t eat before. “Before they didn’t like it at all. Now,
they eat it as a snack. I serve it with peanut butter and
raisins and they love it.”
The study was funded by the Joseph Drown Foundation, the Simms/Mann
Family Foundation, and Venice Family Clinic. It was conducted at Venice
Family Clinic’s Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center, Los Angeles
Unified School District preschools, the Santa Monica Head Start Program,
the Mar Vista Family Center, PHFE WIC, and the Children’s Bureau.
Additional authors include Fred Frankel, PhD, Kristel Robison, MSW, Heidi
Fischer, MPH, William G. Cumberland, PhD, and Charlotte Neumann, MD,
MPH. Access the full article from Childhood Obesity on Venice Family
Clinic’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/venicefamilyclinic.
3
Major Gifts
October 13, 2011, to April 25, 2012
th
Silver Circle Shines in Its 30 Year
Venice Family Clinic’s Silver Circle Gala celebrated an important milestone on Tuesday, March 6, at the Beverly Hilton, in Beverly
Hills. Thanks to three very special honorees—Vice Chairman of FOX Sports Media Group Ed Goren, who received the 2012
Humanitarian Award, and the husband-and-wife team of Christine and Dr. Chester Griffiths, who received the 2012 Irma Colen
Leadership Award—the event raised more than $1 million for the sixth consecutive year. Silver Circle is Venice Family Clinic’s
premier annual support group. For more information, please contact Liza Alon at 310.664.7912 or [email protected].
Humanitarian Award recipient Ed Goren (right)
with the evening’s emcee, FOX Sports’ Pat O’Brien,
and Clinic CEO Liz Forer
Bel Ostrow and Philanthropy and Advisory Board
member Lou Colen
Audra and Jeff Nathanson
Irma Colen Leadership Award recipients
Dr. Chester Griffiths (center) and Christine Griffiths
with presenter Jon Turteltaub
The evening’s entertainment, Grammy winner,
producer, composer, arranger, and pianist Sergio
Mendes
Philanthropy and Advisory Board member
Susan Adelman and Philanthropy Board member
Claudio Llanos
Silver Circle 2012’s Co-Chairs, Foundation Board
member Dr. Harley Liker, Advisory Board member
Julie Liker, and Foundation Board member Hutch Parker
Philanthropy Board member Glorya Kaufman and
Eric Small
David and Judy Shore
Photos: John Salangsang
Maria Bello Headlines the Sack Lunch Series
On Tuesday, April 24, Venice Family Clinic welcomed actress and activist Maria Bello to the
fourth gathering of the Sack Lunch Series. A two-time Golden Globe nominee with acting credits
spanning television and film, Bello is also an accomplished humanitarian. Following the 2010
earthquake in Haiti, she cofounded WE ADVANCE, a movement to advance the health, safety,
and well being of women throughout Haiti. More than 80 people enjoyed her life story over a
picnic lunch at a private estate in Malibu. Sack Lunches are salon-style, ticketed luncheons
featuring notable women speakers, with all proceeds benefiting Venice Family Clinic. For more
information, please visit www.venicefamilyclinic.org and click on the Events tab.
Photo: Jessica Valentine
4
Special thanks to the Sack Lunch Series Founders: Chris Griffiths, Audrey Ruth, Deidre Gordon,
Rebecca Pollack Parker, Penny Rhodes, Amy Swift Crosby, and Liane Weintraub.
$100,000 +
California Community Foundation
Varian S & Gwendolyn L
Green Fund
Gumpert Foundation
George Hoag Family Foundation
Kaiser Permanente of Southern
California*
L.A. Care Health Plan*
The Skirball Foundation
Anonymous
$50,000 to $99,999
Baxter International Foundation
The California Wellness Foundation*
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Lou Colen
The Dharma Grace Foundation
Chuck Lorre
The Fineshriber Family Foundation
The Norman and Sadie Lee
Foundation
The Simms/Mann Family Foundation*
Dr. Victoria & Ronald Simms
Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth
Health System Mission Fund
Saint John's Health Center
Witherbee Foundation
$25,000 to $49,999
Joseph Drown Foundation
Ruth Flinkman-Marandy*
Patricia & William Flumenbaum*
Fox Sports Media Group
The William H. Hannon Foundation*
Susanne & Paul Kester
The Harold McAlister Charitable
Foundation
Estate of Dr. William Molle
The PIMCO Foundation
The Specialty Family Foundation
State of California Attorney General
United HealthCare Services, Inc
Frederick R. Weisman Philanthropic &
Art Foundation
Billie Milam Weisman
The Vollmer Family Foundation
Eva Vollmer
Anonymous
$10,000 to $24,999
The Angeles Clinic Foundation
Gerrie Smith & Dr. Neal Baer*
The Cecile & Fred Bartman
Foundation
The David Bohnett Foundation
Judy & Bernard Briskin
The Capital Group Companies
Center for Oral Health*
Charities Aid Foundation
Lisbet Rausing & Peter Baldwin
The Carol and James Collins
Foundation*
Roy E. Crummer Foundation
The Edelstein Family Charitable
Foundation
Eli Lilly & Company Foundation
Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation*
Liz & Dan Forer
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
David Hockney
Dr. Louise Horvitz
Tatiana & Todd James
Satish Kadaba, MD
Maria Hernandez & Henry Kamberg
W.M. Keck Foundation
William M. Keck, Jr. Foundation
Susan G. Komen for the Cure
Constance Lawton & James Yoder*
Melinda Lerner & John Powell
Diana & Derek Lidow
Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors
Major League Baseball
Maxicare Research and Educational
Foundation*
Medtronic Foundation
The Barry and Wendy Meyer
Foundation*
Milken Family Foundation
Audra & Jeff Nathanson
NBC Universal
In memory of Coach Tom Martinez
New England Patriots
Robert Kraft/The Kraft Group
Rebecca Pollack Parker & Hutch Parker
QuickSilver/Roxy/DC
The Resnick Family Foundation
Lynda & Stewart Resnick
Wido Schaefer
David & Judy Shore Foundation
Lon V. Smith Foundation
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.
Harriet & Richard Squire
J.B. and Emily Van Nuys Charities
Rebecca & Michael E. Vest
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc
Gail & Irving Weintraub
Marilyn Ziering*
Anonymous
* Towards a multi-year commitment
Permanent Endowments
Judy & Bernard Briskin Women’s
Health Endowment
Irma and Lou Colen Physician Endowment
Mose and Sylvia Firestone Social
Work Endowment
Karsten Family Domestic Violence
Endowment
Sadie and Norman Lee Teen Clinic
Physician Endowment
Milken Family Physician Endowment
Resnick Family Mental Health
Program Endowment
Jack H. Skirball Medical Director
Endowment
Gail and Irv Weintraub Endowment
Frederick R. Weisman Psychosocial
Services Endowment
Legacy Society
Robert C. Aronoff
Katherine Bard
Irma & Louis Colen
Mayer B. Davidson, MD, &
Roseann Herman, Esq.
Sylvia & Mose Firestone, PhD
Patricia & William Flumenbaum
Elizabeth & Daniel Forer
Elaine Hoffman
Joanne Jubelier, PhD
Satish Kadaba, MD
Marilyn H. Karsten
Amita & Viren Mehta
Carol Mortier
Charlotte Neumann, MD, &
Alfred Neumann, MD
Janet Papkin
Maida Richards
Stanley Richards
Fern & Robert Seizer
Jeffrey Sinaiko
Leonard Stone
Ina Tillman
Beatrice Zeiger
Anonymous
If your name is not listed, it is listed
improperly, or you have already named
the Clinic as a beneficiary in your estate
plan, please call 310.664.7932 so the
correction can be made.
He’s a Doctor with
a Donor’s Legacy
Help ever, hurt never. It’s a philosophy orthopedist Satish Kadaba,
MD, has lived by his entire life. It inspired him to become a
doctor, to spend more than a decade undertaking medical
missions around the world with the Sathya Sai Baba Organization,
and, since 2007, to volunteer at Venice Family Clinic.
“I chose to study orthopedics
because I liked the almostinstant results,” Dr. Kadaba
says. “Today, I see mostly
manual laborers—people who
work hard and do difficult,
dangerous tasks—and I find
it very rewarding that I’m able
to treat them for all of their
injuries.”
The “help ever” side of his
philosophy also recently
compelled him to offer his
support in another way—by
naming Venice Family Clinic
in his will.
After volunteering for the last five years,
Dr. Satish Kadaba recently elected to
include Venice Family Clinic in his will.
Photo: Margaret Molloy
“The opportunity to treat people like we do at Venice Family
Clinic—one on one, without a third party dictating the care—is
ideal. It’s something we don’t find in our everyday practices,” he
explains. “I’m also aware that the future is uncertain, so I chose
to make Venice Family Clinic one of the beneficiaries of my estate.
I think I’m blessed to be able to do this.”
“The future is uncertain, so I chose to
make Venice Family Clinic one of the
beneficiaries of my estate.”
- Satish Kadaba, MD, Volunteer Orthopedist
Venice Family Clinic’s Legacy Society recognizes donors like
Dr. Kadaba who have named the Clinic in their estate plans or
other planned giving arrangements. Planned gifts can provide
numerous financial benefits to donors—from reduced taxable
income to providing for their children’s futures—while ensuring
Venice Family Clinic’s long-term sustainability, and can include
gifts of any size.
Now 61, and dealing with a few of his own medical issues,
Dr. Kadaba has no plans to stop volunteering on the second
Saturday and third Thursday of every month.
“All of us are here because we choose to be here. The team spirit
is so vital. I plan to volunteer even more as I wind down my
practice,” he says. “God willing, I’ll work for another 30 years.”
For more information about planned giving opportunities at Venice
Family Clinic, please contact Laney Kapgan, Chief Development
Officer, at 310.664.7932 or [email protected].
5
Treating the Whole Person
Helping the Whole Family
Nothing could have prepared Carmen Dahlstrom for the
life change she faced in the summer of 2007. She had
always been healthy, vibrant, and on the go, but suddenly
she wasn’t feeling herself. She couldn’t eat without getting
nauseous. She was fatigued. Her feet and legs started to
swell. And repeated trips to her primary care doctor and
the emergency room failed to turn up a diagnosis.
Rosemary and Michael Johnson are like any other
young couple. They hope for steady work, a safe
place to live, and opportunities for their kids. But
last summer, after moving to Los Angeles from
New York, all of that was in jeopardy.
“We came out here for a job for Michael but he
ended up not getting it,” Rosemary, 29, explains.
“We depleted our resources and ended up
homeless, living in a motel.”
“Finally, on October 4th, I was so weak I thought I
was going to die,” Dahlstrom says. “So I knocked on
my neighbor’s door and asked her to take me to the
emergency room. That’s the last thing I remember until
early January.”
When she came to, she found a pacemaker implanted
in her chest and learned she had survived heart failure,
kidney failure, and lung failure. She remained in the
hospital for the next six months. But the panic really set
in after she was discharged, when she realized she could
no longer afford her health insurance premiums, which
jumped from around $200 per month to more than $600.
She had depleted her savings making numerous co-pays,
some of $1,000 or more, and she had even stopped taking
some of her 12 medications because she couldn’t afford
to pay for them out of pocket.
“Way in the back of my mind, I remembered Venice
Family Clinic,” she explains, recalling a visit she made
in the late Nineties when she was unemployed and
uninsured.
Over the next several months, Dahlstrom would visit
the Clinic for a staggering array of services, spanning
primary care, cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology,
reconstructive surgery, psychiatry, pulmonology,
rheumatology, and social work. In addition, she was
referred to local hospitals for free x-rays, ultrasounds,
blood work, and echocardiograms; she received all of
Dahlstrom’s lead primary care physican at Venice Family Clinic, Coley King, DO,
has overseen her care since 2009. Photo: Margaret Molloy
her medications for free through the Clinic’s dispensaries;
and she got help from the Clinic’s health insurance
program in applying for disability. Plus, she finally got
her diagnosis: scleroderma.
“I got better care at the Clinic than when I had
insurance,” she says, noting that she even met with a
social worker and a psychiatrist to help her deal with
the realization that she would never be the same again.
“I got better care at the Clinic than
when I had insurance.”
- Carmen Dahlstrom, Patient
“We learned early on that if our patients weren’t getting
care from us, they probably weren’t getting it at all,”
explains Liz Forer, Venice Family Clinic’s CEO since
1994. “So we’ve always looked for opportunities to add
services, and today we provide everything from pediatrics
to parenting classes, dental care to vision care, mental
health services to medications.”
Almost three years after she rediscovered Venice
Family Clinic, Dahlstrom, now 62, is on half as many
medications and is again enjoying the simple pleasures
in life, from television medical dramas to her beloved
Chicago Cubs.
“As a kid, I never thought that the Cubs wouldn’t win
a World Series in my lifetime. They better hurry up,”
she says. “Although thanks to the wonderful health care
I’ve received, I may last quite a bit longer.”
Since losing her private health insurance, Carmen Dahlstrom has visited
Venice Family Clinic for dozens of different services, from primary and
specialty care to diagnostics and medications. Photo: Margaret Molloy
6
To complicate matters, Rosemary was pregnant with
their third child. She knew she needed help to carry
her baby safely to term, so she picked up the phone
and dialed 211, L.A. County’s social service hotline.
She quickly learned that a Venice Family Clinic site
was just minutes from the motel.
Photos: Margaret Molloy
A Constellation of Care
Following is a sampling of the services Venice Family Clinic provides to
more than 25,000 people per year, through more than 400 appointments
per day, at eight sites in L.A. County.
• Primary care
• Pediatric care
• Child development services (Early Head Start)
• Teen health care
• Reproductive health care
• Homeless health care
• Chronic disease management
• Specialty care in 20 areas
• HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment
• Integrative medicine
• Health insurance enrollment assistance
• Health education
• Lab tests
• Radiology
• Medications
• Mental health services
• Domestic violence screening and intervention
• Vision care
• Dental care
Download a fact sheet with a complete list of services by visiting
www.venicefamilyclinic.org and clicking the Overview link in the About tab.
At her first prenatal visit, Rosemary realized that
Venice Family Clinic could help her whole family,
including three-year-old Kara and two-year-old Mario.
Within weeks, both children were caught up on all
of their well-child exams and immunizations, and
Mario, who had already developed a cavity, enjoyed
his first visit with a dentist, at Venice Family Clinic’s
new Ruth Ziegler and Jack Skirball Dental Clinic.
In addition, Mario, who spoke only a few words and
seemed not to be hitting some of his developmental
milestones, was enrolled in the Clinic’s Children First
Early Head Start program. A Children First home
visitor, Erin Urbina, began meeting with the family
on a weekly basis, reading to Mario and helping him
feel comfortable being separated from his mother.
“She was really there for the family.
She even got me a brand new car
seat for my baby.”
- Rosemary Johnson, Patient
“He fooled us,” Rosemary says. “It wasn’t his
speech. It was just that he was uncomfortable
where we were. By the time we left [the program],
he was forming complete sentences.”
Baby Selena was delivered March 2. And within a
few weeks, the family had moved into an apartment
in Hollywood.
“I have to say that [Erin] was really there for the
family. She was really helpful and efficient and
loving,” Collado says. “She even got me a brand
new car seat for my baby.”
7
Venture into Venice
Encounters
The Semiannual Newsletter of
MAY 19-20
The Whole Person,
The Whole Family
Details on Page 2
With more sites and more services than ever,
Venice Family Clinic has transcended its role
as a health clinic and now functions more like
a health system for its patients.
www.theveniceartwalk.org
In Memory of Venice Family Clinic’s Recently Departed Supporters
Dr. Richard B. Aronsohn, Newton Becker, Dr. Lester Breslow, Arlene Bronner, E. Richard “Rick” Brown, Gilbert “Gil” Cates, Jack Cherbo,
Jack Colker, Robert L. Feldman, Rose Freeman, Edna Gyepes, Gwendolyn Joann Lauterbach, Dr. William E. Molle, Gail Nochimson, Richard Elliot Orgell,
Paul H. Pollock, Shirley Hope Pollock, Kenneth Price, Marvin Jack Saul, Keith R. Schrupp, Robert F. Seiden, Jan Siegel, Mace Siegel, Richard (Ric) Waite
Non-Profit Org.
US Postage
PAID
Mercury Mailing
Systems Inc.
604 Rose Avenue • Venice, CA 90291
PHONE 310.664.7910 • FAX 310.396.8279
www.venicefamilyclinic.org
Address service requested
Printed on 55% recycled, FSC-Certified paper
Staff pediatrician Basia Tcheng, MD, examines Jocelyn Martinez, 5,
and her brother Jose, 2. Photo: Margaret Molloy
Spring 2012