Pacific Life Foundation Grants $2 Million to Children’s Health of Orange County
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.: The Pacific Life Foundation has announced a $2 million grant to Children’s Health of Orange County (CHOC) in support of its efforts to address the mental health challenges facing Orange County youth.
The funds will support CHOC’s mental health programs, including an intensive eight-week outpatient program that helps teens build coping skills as they manage through symptoms of severe anxiety and depression, and expansion of an eating disorder program to ensure long-term follow-up and expanded case management to patients after in-treatment care, particularly to those who cannot afford follow-up care. In addition, a portion of the grant will go toward CHOC’s critical infrastructure needs, including helping build out a new space in the Julia and George Argyros Emergency Department at CHOC’s hospital in Orange for mental health assessment and initial treatment.
“Over the last few years, CHOC’s mental health program has seen an increase in need given the impacts of the pandemic on the mental health of the youth of Orange County,” said Tennyson Oyler, president, Pacific Life Foundation. “Community is one of our core values at Pacific Life and helping CHOC address these challenges and ensure children and teens get the mental health support they need is important to us. We’re very proud to continue our long-standing partnership with CHOC in support of its work.”
“We are so grateful to the Pacific Life Foundation for its ongoing commitment to CHOC and the mental health of our patients and families,” said Dr. Heather Huszti, chief psychologist, CHOC. “It is the power of philanthropy that can help us restore some of the wonder of childhood to youth who go through difficult times, learn how to manage their challenges, and help them flourish into adulthood.”
In 2015, the Pacific Life Foundation helped provide initial funding to support the Cherese Mari Laulhere Mental Health Inpatient Center at CHOC, an 18-bed center exclusively dedicated to the treatment of children ages 3 to 17 with mental illness who are in immediate risk of hurting themselves or others. The center is the centerpiece of CHOC’s mental health system of care.
