Clinic’s Teen Aides Ease Peers’ Fears

At first glance, the North Hollywood waiting room looks doctor’s-office standard -- beige walls, rows of salmon-colored chairs, a reception desk walled off with glass. On a recent night, 16-year-old Maricela entered the room, clutching her boyfriend’s hand and looking nervous.

She had come to the Valley Community Clinic’s Teen Clinic scared -- that she might have a sexually transmitted disease, that she might, a week after first having sex, not know how to keep from getting pregnant.

Waiting to be seen, she sat hunched in on herself, shoulders nearly parallel to the floor. Then she began to relax a little.

Partly it was seeing Christina Aguilera belting out a song on the waiting room TV, always tuned to MTV. Mostly it was seeing other teenagers like herself working on the clinic staff.

“They’re laughing and joking -- not so serious,” Maricela said. “Seeing people my age -- that makes me feel less embarrassed.”

The Teen Clinic, open on Saturdays and until 9 p.m. four nights a week, gives Valley teenagers extensive training so that they can talk accurately to their peers about difficult subjects: STDs, AIDS, contraceptives, pregnancy testing. Before a jittery youth speaks to a nurse or sees a doctor, one of the teenagers on the staff opens the conversation, asking the reason for the visit, easing fears.

The Valley Community Clinic is one of 56 service organizations that received grants from last year’s Times Holiday Campaign. The help was desperately needed. The organization doesn’t just run the Teen Clinic, but also provides everything from basic medical care to optometry and family counseling to thousands of uninsured and underinsured people of all ages across the San Fernando Valley.

Last year, the clinic had 45,000 patient visits, though it has only enough staff and funding to scratch the surface of the need, said Ann Britt, its president and chief executive. And state and county health-care cuts are increasing the demand.

“I don’t think we’ve fully felt the impact of it yet. It’s going to get much worse,” she said.

The Teen Clinic’s services are free or low-cost. Medications are free. And there’s much more to the program than doctor visits. The clinic’s health educators fan out across the Valley, teaching health education at nearly every public high school. That’s how many teenagers first find out there’s a place they can go to ask questions and get care. Many are poor and don’t have regular doctors. And they are frightened.

Jose Hernandez, 18, was the clinic staff member who helped put Maricela at ease. He started working at the clinic 3 1/2 years ago, when he was younger than Maricela. “I tried to make her smile. I joked a little,” he said. “She said she felt kind of embarrassed. I told her she didn’t have to be. And I think it helped.”

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