Building bi-directional referral and communication pathways across the community-clinic divide: Experiences from a systems-informed innovation project in Los Angeles.

Bi-directional communication and referral pathways (BCRPs) between clinics and community-based organizations could promote well-being among vulnerable populations with complex and overlapping health and social needs. While BCRPs are promising, establishing them is complex, involving system and process changes across diverse organizational settings. To date, few models have been implemented or empirically tested.

Clinic- and Community-Based National Diabetes Prevention Programs in Los Angeles.

Clinics and community-based organizations (CBOs) are priority settings for implementing the evidence-based National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP). Both program settings present theoretical advantages and disadvantages for engaging and helping populations most at risk for diabetes achieve lifestyle change goals. To date, few studies have compared implementation across them.

Current practices, facilitators, and barriers experienced by program providers implementing the National Diabetes Prevention Program in Los Angeles County.

Individuals with prediabetes can lower their diabetes risk by participating in the National Diabetes Prevention Program (National DPP), an evidence-based, group lifestyle change program that is taught by a certified lifestyle coach. To date, studies have not explicitly compared National DPP implementation across multiple settings (i.e.

Addressing Challenges to Coordinating the Implementation of Place-Based Chronic Disease Prevention Interventions in Los Angeles.

Context: Chronic disease prevention initiatives have traditionally been structured to address a single disease, potentially limiting the scope of health impacts. In the past decade, initiatives have increasingly adopted a coordinated approach, in which multiple interventions are intended to work synergistically-often in a bounded geographic area-to address interrelated risk factors and diseases. However, despite increased interest in this coordinated approach, few examples exist of how coordination has been operationalized in local public health practice.

Local School Wellness Policy as a Means to Advance Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child: Assessing Alignment in Los Angeles County.

Background: District wellness policies provide an avenue to advance the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model. The extent to which wellness policies currently align with WSCC is unclear; to-date, tools have been unavailable to examine this issue.

Methods: We reviewed written health-focused policies among 37 school districts in Los Angeles County in 2017 utilizing a 54-item tool designed to examine the quality of policies in the 10 WSCC domains.

Implementing a Healthy Food Distribution Program: A Supply Chain Strategy to Increase Fruit and Vegetable Access in Underserved Areas.

Increasing access to fresh produce in small retail venues could improve the diet of people in underserved communities. However, small retailers face barriers to stocking fresh produce. In 2014, an innovative distribution program, Community Markets Purchasing Real and Affordable Foods (COMPRA), was launched in Los Angeles with the aim of making it more convenient and profitable for small retailers to stock fresh produce.

Distribution, characteristics, and level of community awareness and use of formal shared use sites in Los Angeles.

Shared use agreements (SUA) could increase opportunities for physical activity (PA) in under-resourced, urban areas. Despite recent investments in SUAs, the extent to which they reach communities in need and the level of community awareness and use of SUAs remains unclear. This cross-sectional study examined: 1) the distribution of SUAs in Los Angeles (LA) during the 2015-2016 academic year, 2) the characteristics of communities where SUAs were located, and 3) the extent to which community members were aware of and using available facilities.

Review of Education-Focused Health Impact Assessments Conducted in the United States.

Background: Health impact assessment (HIA) provides a structured process for examining the potential health impacts of proposed policies, plans, programs, and projects. This study systematically reviewed HIAs conducted in the United States on prekindergarten, primary, and secondary education-focused decisions.

Methods: Relevant HIA reports were identified from web sources in late 2015.

Youth Descriptions of Mental Health Needs and Experiences with School-based Services: Identifying Ways to Meet the Needs of Underserved Adolescents.

While schools serve as a common entry point into mental health services for underserved youth, engagement of students in need of care remains a problem. Little is known about the ways schools can best address students' mental health needs, especially from the perspective of youth who struggle to attend school, a vulnerable group with a high burden of mental health problems. A qualitative descriptive approach was used to analyze data from in-depth interviews with a sample of 18 youth with a history of school truancy and mental health problems.

Pharmacist-Driven Strategies for Hypertension Management in Los Angeles: A Community and Stakeholder Needs Assessment, 2014-2015.

In 2014, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health received federal funding to improve the prevention and control of hypertension in the population through team-based health care delivery models, such as pharmacist-led medication therapy management. To inform this work, the department conducted a 3-part needs assessment consisting of 1) a targeted context scan of regional policies and efforts, 2) a key stakeholder survey, and 3) a public opinion internet-panel survey of Los Angeles residents. Results suggest that political will and professional readiness exists for expansion of pharmacist-led medication management strategies in Los Angeles.

Early Impacts of a Healthy Food Distribution Program on the Availability and Price of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables in Small Retail Venues in Los Angeles.

Healthy food distribution programs that allow small retailers to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables at wholesale prices may increase the profitability of selling produce. While promising, little is known about how these programs affect the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables in underserved communities. This study examined the impacts of a healthy food distribution program in Los Angeles County over its first year of operation (August 2015-2016).

Access to and Use of Schools for Physical Activity Among Adults in Los Angeles County.

Formal agreements that outline conditions for community use of school facilities represent a potentially attractive approach to increasing access to places for physical activity in underresourced areas. Despite growing interest in these shared use agreements, limited data are available on their population-level impacts. This study used data collected via an Internet panel survey in spring 2014 (n = 1,006) to examine the extent of public awareness and use of school-based physical activity resources in Los Angeles County.

The Association between Self-Reported Grocery Store Access, Fruit and Vegetable Intake, Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption, and Obesity in a Racially Diverse, Low-Income Population.

This study sought to examine the relationship between self-reported time and distance to the nearest retail grocery store, healthy and unhealthy food consumption, and objectively measured body mass index (BMI). We conducted a survey with 1,503 racially diverse, low-income residents at five public health centers in Los Angeles County. Most participants reported shopping at a supermarket (86.