Los Angeles Christian Health Centers

We at LACHC just want to give a friendly reminder that #BlackLivesMatter! Homelessness, mass incarceration, and COVID-19 disproportionately affect black people. At LACHC, we take direct action to heal our neighbors the best way we canwith loving, quality healthcare. #healthcare

Our #mentalhealth department provides individual counseling, group therapy, substance/alcohol treatment, child/marital/family therapies, some psychological testing, psychosocial rehabilitation, and Christian counseling, to promote whole-person #health. https://www.lachc.com/blog/mental-healthcare-at-lachc/

Here's a message from one of our patients speaking from his room at a Project Roomkey Hotel after experiencing homelessness for over 30 years! Can you make a donation to help us provide loving, comprehensive healthcare for more of Skid Row's most underserved residents? http://ow.ly/19c450B1ClR

Come work with us! We're hiring for 12 different positions! We are here to serve God by providing our homeless neighbors with quality, loving care. http://www.lachc.com/careers/ #healthcarejobs #healthcarecareers

In our first episode of LACHC Live, board members Peggy Pleasant and Kim Mealy talk with Renee about homelessness on #SkidRow, how LACHC helped, & what people should know about what happens inside Joshua House. https://www.lachc.com/blog/lachc-live/

We're out here doing testing in the street for COVID-19, HIV, Hepatitis and more! By helping our homeless neighbors detect and treat their hidden health problems, we can intervene with treatment before their symptoms get worse and they wind up in the emergency room. It's expensive to do street medicine, but actually saves money in the long run by preventing a burden to our emergency healthcare system. Not to mentionstreet medicine saves lives! We bring healthcare directly to the people that need it most, exactly where they arein the streets, overpasses, and alleys of LA. #healthcare #downtownLA #homeless

So far we've tested over 5,100 individuals for COVID-19, and found about 255 positives. Here's our CMO Katy White in action in our testing booth!

We're LIVE from Skid Row giving care where our patients need it most - in the street!

Our team is growing! We are hiring for 11 different positions. Together, we strive to live out our core values of Christlikeness, Excellence, Accessibility, Justice, Kindness and Unity. With these as our foundation, we work as a team to carry out our mission of following Christ by loving and serving our neighbors through comprehensive, quality healthcare. https://www.lachc.com/careers/ #tbt to this photo from 2017!

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our clinic uses telehealth as much as possible to help patients communicate with their doctors while maintaining social distancing. Our board member and long time patient Kim talks about her telehealth experience. #telemedicine

When Dr. Katy White, Chief Medical Officer, saw Luke (not his real name) last week because of knee pain she learned that he'd lost his ID and couldn’t work while trying to replace it. His phone was also not working, making it hard to contact him. Fortunately, we were able to refer him to one of their Care Coordinators to talk with him right then about the next steps toward replacing his ID. Reviewing his history in detail and remembering the amazing talk from the DAY BEFORE b...y our experienced Skid Row Physician Assistant Manda, Katy asked him a bit about current substance use. He said, Well, I’m just giving up Meth. So when’s the last time you used Meth, she asked, suspecting the answer. Last night, he replied. Using motivational interviewing after the refresher from the day prior- trying to enable patients to find their own internal motivation to change instead of powering up and browbeating them-. Katy discovered some things she didn’t expect. So what are the benefits to using Meth? she asked. Well, it keeps me warm at night and helps me stay awake, which keeps me safer on the streets. It’s a bit hard to argue with the need to be safe on the streets. Then she asked, What are the downsides of using Meth? and he really wasn’t aware of any. So she asked if he would like to know how it affected his pre-existing heart condition, and he was very interested. They ended up having an eye-opening conversation around decreasing his use, which he really DOES want to do, to help him maintain a job, but again, he can’t work until he gets his ID. Katy gave him some medication for his pain, pressed him on asthma symptoms with the firey air conditions and refilled his asthma medications, connected him with the care coordinator, and encouraged him to keep thinking about steps toward better health, one day at a time, which he agreed to do. Luke was not ‘healed’ in any classic sense. This story reminds us of that moment after Jesus laid hands on a man’s eyes to heal his blindness and asked, What do you see? Then it says, The man looked up and said, I see people; they look like trees walking around (Mark 8:24). So Jesus laid hands on him a second time to finish the job. Often healing is a multi-step process, especially on Skid Row.

Take a sneak peek at our new Joshua House clinic at 7th and Wall Streets! COVID-19 has caused construction delays, but we aim to open the new clinic by January 2021. #SkidRow #healthcare #homeless

"When I met the people at Joshua House, that gave me hope. And that's what I want to give to other people." - Board Member and Patient, Peggy. Many of our patients choose to give back to the community by volunteering at LACHC, serving on our board, or just helping others find their way to Joshua House. We are here to share God's love, and to love and care for each other. To volunteer, please contact us via this form: https://www.lachc.com/volunteer/