Category: Story of the Month

Service that Goes Above and Beyond

Young & Healthy met the Stark family as a referral from a PUSD elementary school when nine-year-old Rebecca was experiencing dental pain. Our Care Team secured a dental visit with our professional volunteer dentist, Dr. Ravindran, and Rebecca had a tooth extracted and was back at school the next day pain-free.  The following week, the Care Team followed up with Rebecca’s father, Ralph, who is a very soft-spoken man. Ralph opened up about other challenges his family was facing. Since the pandemic, he has not been able to find full time work and has been doing free-lance IT jobs while his wife, Amy, works part-time. Ralph spoke about the family’s dire need for health insurance. Their four-year-old son, Daniel, was about to start school and needed a physical and dental exam, as well as updated immunizations. The Care Team immediately secured a visit to a Pasadena provider that would grant Daniel temporary Medi-Cal coverage to access the necessary services. Our insurance specialist also met with Ralph and Amy to help them apply for health insurance and informed them of the free VITA tax preparation services through our partnership with CSULA. Ralph and Amy had their taxes prepared during a Saturday VITA tax preparation day where they qualified for the Earned Income Tax Credit and a much-needed refund.

Young & Healthy’s commitment to service enables us to connect with families and ease their challenges. Our reach extends well beyond a dental visit and with no financial burden to the families we serve.

Taxes Don’t Have to Be Taxing

Young & Healthy has been working weekends these past few months helping families and individuals who need assistance with filing their taxes. Rita is a retired woman in her 60s who worked for the City of Pasadena all of her adult life. She had paid out-of-pocket year after year to have an accountant prepare her very simple tax return. This year, she heard about Young & Healthy’s free tax preparation services and made an appointment. She was thrilled with the results! Not only did we help Rita file her taxes and secure her refund, but by saving the tax preparation fee she was actually able to enjoy her refund for the first time. She left our offices grinning from ear to ear. How often can you say that about doing taxes?!

Keeping a Medical Emergency from Becoming a Financial Crisis

Medical emergencies can be devastating. Not just to a person’s physical health, but to their financial well-being as well. If someone suffers a medical emergency and doesn’t have health insurance, the financial impact can be even more serious and long-lasting than the emergency itself.  When twenty-nine-year-old Damien dislocated his shoulder, he was rushed to the hospital where emergency room doctors were able to repair his injury and alleviate its lasting effects. But Damien didn’t have medical insurance and was presented with a $28,000 emergency room bill! As a result, he was facing financial devastation, even as he experienced a full recovery from his shoulder injury. Fortunately, Damien was referred to Young & Healthy where our Insurance Advocate was able to spring into action. He helped Damien apply for retroactive Medi-Cal coverage, allowing Damien to not only get back on his feet physically, but return to his life on stable financial footing.

If you or someone you know lives in the greater Pasadena area and needs help enrolling in a health insurance plan, please contact Young & Healthy. We are here to help you navigate your many options and find a plan that’s a perfect fit for you and your family.

Sweet Dreams

Young & Healthy is conducting its Mindfulness Training in kindergarten classes throughout Pasadena Unified School District. Courtney, a bubbly little five-year-old, approached our Mindfulness Coordinator, Dr. Rebecca Bokoch and said, “Miss Rebecca, I watch you on TV at home.” Now this baffled Rebecca as she has never performed on television, so she assumed it was a case of mistaken identity. She asked Courtney what she was doing on the TV and Courtney said, “You are reading books and helping me sleep.” Rebecca realized that Courtney had been watching her on the Mindfulness videos that Young & Healthy has created on our YouTube channel. Her parents had found the videos and were using them at bedtime to help Courtney when she was having trouble relaxing and falling asleep. These videos are available for everyone to use and can be found HERE

Sweet dreams!

All In a Day’s Work

On a cold and wintery morning, Theresa called the office to discuss issues with her insurance. She had been receiving inaccurate information from other sources so was transferred to our Insurance Specialist to work out what she needed to do. During the conversation it was discovered that Theresa’s two-month-old daughter, Nicole, was sick with a cold and needed to be seen by a doctor. The Care Team sprang into action and got her an appointment that day to see one of our volunteer pediatricians. While at the appointment the pediatrician detected a potential heart murmur and called Young & Healthy to see if we could refer Nicole to a specialist. We secured an appointment that afternoon with a volunteer cardiologist and little Nicole is now receiving all the necessary treatment. The holidays just got a little brighter for Theresa’s family, and for Young & Healthy it was all in a day’s work.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Young & Healthy!