OUR STORY
Patient Health Advocates is one of six programs that comprise the larger organization, SCOPE at UCLA. SCOPE—which stands for Students for Community Outreach, Promotion, and Education—was established in the summer of 2003 as an effort between medical students, public health graduate students, and undergraduates to provide more comprehensive care to patients of the UCLA 200 Medical Plaza. Pediatric physician Alice Kuo M.D. Ph.D. M.Ed. serves as the program advisor.
Originally Resource Desk, in 2015, the program was renamed and restructured into Patient Health Advocates. It remains a collaborative endeavor between undergraduate caseworkers and UCLA physicians to provide underserved patients with helpful resources in their community that can improve their health and wellbeing. Therefore, a training curriculum focused on relevant public health topics is taught to new caseworkers every fall. This not only prepares caseworkers for one on one interactions with patients, but also provides a background of various social determinants of health that can positively impact health.
Patient Health Advocates currently serves three different UCLA clinics: the Witherbee Foundation Children’s Health Center and the Internal Medicine Suite located at UCLA 200 Medical Plaza as well as UCLA Medicine-Pediatrics Comprehensive Care Center in Santa Monica.
In 2020, the committee system was restructured into project teams in order to improve efficiency, increase the quality of advocates’ work, and ultimately better serve patients. Currently, there are seven projects in place: Technology, Resource, Outreach, Community, Health Systems, Transitional Care, and Didi Hirsch. Each project is dedicated to improving a different aspect of Patient Health Advocates’ interactions with patients, physicians, and with one another.
Currently, caseworkers are not working in clinics during the COVID-19 pandemic but are still focused on supporting our patients in a safe manner. In the future, Patient Health Advocates hopes to continue to grow in order to reach more patients and empower the Los Angeles community through caseworking.
To learn more about our parent organization, visit uclascope.org.
OUR VALUES
Empathy & Respect
We strive to treat everyone with empathy and respect. This goes for everyone we encounter: our patients, our teachers, each other. This means keeping an open mind, listening to others without judgment, and working collaboratively to solve problems.
Education & Empowerment
We strive to treat everyone with empathy and respect. This goes for everyone we encounter: our patients, our teachers, each other. This means keeping an open mind, listening to others without judgment, and working collaboratively to solve problems.
Research & Innovation
We strive to treat everyone with empathy and respect. This goes for everyone we encounter: our patients, our teachers, each other. This means keeping an open mind, listening to others without judgment, and working collaboratively to solve problems.
Teamwork & Collaboration
We strive to treat everyone with empathy and respect. This goes for everyone we encounter: our patients, our teachers, each other. This means keeping an open mind, listening to others without judgment, and working collaboratively to solve problems.
PROJECT TEAMS
Resources
Responsible for maintaining and creating materials to improve volunteer caseworking and better serve our patients.
Technology
Develops new methods to obtain patient feedback and data in order to investigate areas of improvement and success in our workflow.
Outreach
Increases PHA’s influence on- and off-campus by collaborating with internal and external organization and develops external-facing materials.
Community
Fundraises, plans socials, and organizes professional development resources for PHA members.
Health Systems
Facilitates the onboarding and offboarding process for all volunteers and keeps volunteers active throughout the year.
Transitional Care
Bridges the gap in medical education and care for patients transitioning from pediatric to adult care by providing necessary information and resources.
Didi Hirsch
Works to develop a registry of patients who received referrals to Didi Hirsch in our CHC, MPCCC, and IMS clinics.