President’s Message
It has been an honor and a challenge to support those we serve, helping them to attain their optimal growth and potential.
We are continuously evolving and growing to meet the community’s increasingly more complex and diverse needs. We strive for excellence in all our endeavors and believe in every individual’s resiliency and potential for recovery and growth.
Our central goal is to provide high-quality services and programs that are individually tailored, accessible, efficient, effective, and culturally competent. We have served the community since 1965, with a caring, competent staff, guided by an exceptional Board of Directors.
During my tenure with the agency, there have been many changes in the landscape of the community, and the myriad of needs to its residents. We provide a continuum of health services, primarily to residents in Service Area 6. As part of our evolutionary process, in 2013, Kedren launched its Primary Care Clinic, a designated Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), funded by the Federal Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA). The clinic provides comprehensive medical services for adults, which include primary care and treatment, preventative care, immunizations, health education, treatment and management of acute and chronic health conditions like hypertension and diabetes management, prescribing of medications, ordering or interpreting lab testing, physical examinations, STD screenings, vision/hearing, family planning, nutrition, and referrals to specialty services.
We are at the forefront of change and organizational growth, embracing a model of wellness, and enhancing our service delivery system to provide more intensive and comprehensive services and care for those we serve. To that end, we are developing collaborative partnerships with primary care health providers, physicians, pediatricians, dietitians, and other practitioners, to offer educational, wellness and recovery services. Part of Kedren’s mission is to provide medical, and behavioral health services to underserved and uninsured persons in South Los Angeles.
In July 2018, Kedren and Charles Drew University embarked upon an academic and community health collaboration with the students enrolled in their Graduate Medical Education program. These students are part of Charles Drew’s Residency Program and consistent with Kedren’s mission to serve under-served urban communities. Charles Drew residents in conjunction with Kedren’s clinical staff focus its services on:
- Patient-centered team-based health care of under-resourced patients
- Trauma-informed assessment and care
- Community violence as a public-health problem
- Social and environmental determinants of health, illness, and health disparities
- Health needs and resources of immigrant communities
- Community engaged health equity research
- Democratization of health care for special needs populations
- Medical-Community Medical Care clinic partnerships
- Healthcare of families, youth, and adults
Charles R. Drew University has been awarded Accreditation with Commendation by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME®) for demonstrating excellence across each of the ACCME’s Accreditation Criteria. The Charles R. Drew University Office of CME provides excellent continuing medical education that will enhance the ability of faculty physicians and community physicians to provide patient care. The overarching goal of the academic affiliation between Kedren Community Health and Charles R. Drew University is to improve patient care within underserved populations and reduce healthcare disparities.
Kedren’s programs deliver services to underserved populations, in which they may not be served due to language, cultural or geographical barriers. Our services are guided by the tenant to “do whatever it takes” to help people recover from mental illness, enhance outcomes for children and families, and to identify potential problems early, to avert them from negatively impacting the lives of residents of the community.
This is why we are integrating programs that focus on early intervention and prevention, serving children from birth to older adults, with a strengths-based, family-focused model to enrich the lives of those we serve, planting the seeds of physical, social, emotional and cognitive growth, and overall wellness.
–Dr. John. H. Griffith