In honor of National Nurses Week, May 6-12, CenCal Health is recognizing all workers who improve the lives of others through “giving care.”

At the the Central Coast’s largest health plan, there are some 60 employees whose job description contains the word care. They are experienced nurses, licensed social workers, and dedicated case managers in various departments at CenCal Health, including Health Services, Quality Management, Medical Management, Utilization Management and Provider Services.

While they may not work in a doctor’s office, clinic or hospital, they play an integral part in managing the health of hundreds of thousands of Medi-Cal members in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Three are highlighted here:

Laci Crouch is a former hospital emergency room nurse with a Texas accent. After 15 years of nursing in her home state, Crouch moved to California and went to work for CenCal Health, which was just starting a specialized pediatric unit to support Medi-Cal members who are also eligible for California Children’s Services (CCS).

The special health services of CCS are for children and teens who have chronic medical conditions such as cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy, cancer, and traumatic injuries. As a health plan nurse coordinator, Crouch is a senior member of the team that manages the treatments and care of vulnerable children.

“Every day and many times a day, I get to help children and families improve their lives,” she said. “It might be approving a request for a wheelchair repair for a young boy. That might not seem like a big deal to most people but for a low-income family, whose fragile child has grown too big to pick up and carry, a functioning wheelchair means the world.”

Rose Vazquez, a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), serves members in the Pediatric Case Management Department. As a pediatrics social worker, she provides psycho-social support to at-risk children who require complex medical services, often including physical and occupational therapy.

Frequently, these children are in families who have no or low income, so they also need to access vital resources such as housing and food.

“One family I worked with was struggling with transportation to medical appointments, and the child member needed an important follow-up appointment after a recent surgery,” Vazquez said about the single-parent family also struggling with homelessness. She quickly connected the family to a social service agency that could help with transportation.

“Over the phone I assisted this overwhelmed parent, simultaneously using my computer to fill out her application for a gas card, and submitting it just in time so that the family could drive a friend’s car to see that physician,” Vazquez said.

Growing up in a family that also needed social service programs, Vazquez said she has “been doing this work my whole life.”

As a young child, she was the interpreter between her Spanish-speaking mother and the social workers and agency employees that aided her family. The experience led Vazquez – with her resilience and caring heart – to go to college at UCSB and graduate school at USC, achieving her career goal of becoming a LCSW.

Both Crouch and Vazquez emphasized the importance of “the team” at CenCal Health. They mentioned the admirable work of the CSAs (clinical support associates), who assist with member health management.

For the past six years, Angelica Laurel-Castro has served as a CSA at the health plan. As she describes her day-to-day job responsibilities, it seems she is a combination of detective and educator.

Tracking down medical records for a patient who recently moved from another county and had mixed up her medications, or finding local services that will help a member and their family with food scarcity, are just two examples.

“I love my job because I love helping people,” said Laurel-Castro. “Maybe because I had a mother who always helped others in our neighborhood; early on I followed her lead.” Before coming to CenCal Health, Laurel-Castro worked 20 years in public health for Santa Barbara County.

Laurel-Castro summed it up, “to have a member patient call you ‘an angel’, to feel the gratitude of a lonely senior after you’ve taken extra time to schedule their medical appointments, to be able to give individualized attention to someone in need — that is the greatest reward of a care career.”