Westside Family Health Center Thrives on Support of Palisadians

Teetering piles of turquoise folders surround Sherrie Pastron, a resident of the Riviera. She tucks a fuchsia pamphlet into each one, assisted by her daughter Rosemary. They are assembling informational prenatal packets as part of their volunteer work at the Westside Family Health Center.

WFHC is a non-profit community health center that provides a wide range of low-cost primary healthcare services in Santa Monica. Though they have only 1,500 square feet of clinic space, they serve more than 9,500 low-income and uninsured Angelenos annually from 248 ZIP codes, regardless of their ability to pay.

The Pastrons have volunteered at the center for more than two years and first became involved with it through the Westside chapter of the mother-daughter charitable organization National Charity League.

“I love putting all the files and bags together because I know that I’m really helping people,” Rosemary Pastron, a sophomore at Archer School, said. “It lets the staff actually work and spend time with the patients instead of wasting their time putting together paperwork.”

The Los Angeles County Medical Association (LACMA) and the Patient Care Foundation recently honored WFHC with the 2013 Innovation Award, in recognition of their innovative use of facilities to promote patient care and satisfaction.

Dr. Troy Elander, a Las Casas resident and Chairman of the Board for the Patient Care Foundation of Los Angeles County, nominated WFHC for the award.

WFHC Director of Development and Palisadian Celia Bernstein said that she introduced fellow Marquez Elementary parent Elander to the clinic. Elander then attended the launch of WFHC’s Mobile Medical Unit in 2011. Two years later, he nominated WFHC for the award.

“With a wonderful attitude, you [WFHC] seem to continually be asking, ‘How can we best serve the health needs of this community?’” Elander said in a press release.

Bernstein believes that although most Palisadians may not need to visit an affordable community clinic like WFHC, it nevertheless plays an important role in the community.

“There is an assumption that community health centers serve only low-income people, but WFHC helps everyone, from some of my friends to the woman who serves me coffee at my favorite café to those who work in small businesses who do not currently have health insurance,” Bernstein said. “Our work has a wider effect than I think even I sometimes realize. I am always running into people who have visited the clinic or if they haven’t, their nannies and housekeepers have.”

Sixty-six of WFHC’s patients came from the Palisades area last year.

Katelyn Q, a sales associate at a local boutique, has been a patient at WFHC since 2007.

“After I graduated from UCLA, I was uninsured for a while. I had a friend that went to WFHC and said good things about it,” Q, who also attended Calvary Christian school in the Palisades, said.  “It’s convenient. I feel safe, knowing the doctors there are capable and there to serve the community.”

WFHC will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a retro-themed birthday bash March 15 at Le Meridien Delfina in Santa Monica. The occasion will feature music from across the decades, dancing, drinks and food, as well as a silent auction, which will include a pink Carlos Falchi clutch courtesy of local clothing store Elyse Walker.

Pali Wine Company will also donate wine for the event. Tickets are available at wfhc.eventbrite.com and all proceeds will go to the clinic.

A number of Palisadians will attend the event, including Las Casas resident and retired social worker Darlene Lasher.

“I think the Center is just marvelous,” Lasher said. “I regularly attend their functions and just try to do my bit to support them. I’ve been involved in a lot of social work, and I became enamored with them and their impact on the community. There’s always a huge need.”

In an effort to address that need, WFHC hopes to expand the services they offer to include dental, vision and mental health. They are also looking to move to a bigger space that will better accommodate the large quantity of patients they see.

“We have always been responsive to the needs of the community, while maintaining our core ideals from the time that we began as a women’s clinic,” Bernstein said. “We were founded on a set of values, among them that there is an equal partnership between the patient and the provider. The health provider provides healthcare, but in a way that the patient can hear and understand, so that he or she can be truly involved in their own health. Those values continue today.”