GARDEN GROVE : Health Van Once Again Is on a Roll

Johnny Do, an active kindergartner with a gap-toothed smile, is finding it hard to sit still for his physical exam.

“When can I come down from here?” the 6-year-old asks nurse practitioner Madonna Nicolai, who is shining a light in the boy’s ear as he sits precariously perched on the exam table.

The boy’s impatience doesn’t cause Nicolai to miss a beat.

“Did you brush your teeth today?” she counters, peering at Johnny’s teeth. “I have a brand-new toothbrush to give you when you leave here. You should brush in the morning and brush at night and if you eat candy, brush then too.”

In the Orange Unified School District, the mobile health van was once a common sight, appearing at schools regularly to check up on students’ physical well-being. But the unit was mothballed in 1987, a victim of district budget cuts.

However, the health van went back into service earlier this month at Lampson Elementary School, courtesy of a $50,000 grant from the state Department of Health Services.

The mobile unit, staffed with nurse practitioners, offers complete physical exams, immunizations and TB testing in addition to tests to determine a child’s emotional and motor skills development.

Only Lampson students whose families are on Medi-Cal or are deemed low income are eligible to receive the unit’s medical services.

“Kids with insurance often have their own doctors. We are trying to access kids without medical care,” said Jane McCloud, health services coordinator for the Orange Unified School District.

“The goal of the program is to create one-stop shopping, where services come together to meet community needs,” McCloud said. “We wanted to create a school community network of personnel, agencies and manpower so that families can easily access physical and mental health services. Families often have to go to a multitude of places, particularly if they are low income, for help, and they often get lost in the bureaucratic shuffle.”

And the more than 800 students attending Lampson are just the kind who can easily fall through the cracks, officials said. Nearly 70% have limited English skills and a similar number are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. In addition, Lampson children often come from highly mobile families. If a student begins the academic year at the Garden Grove school, there is only a 50% chance he or she will remain there to finish the year, said Lampson Principal Carolyn Reichert.

But health exams aren’t all that’s going on at Lampson. More than 40 public health agencies, businesses and universities are working cooperatively with the school to offer such social services as parenting, nutrition, English and money management classes free to families who need the extra help.