South Florida

The South Florida Children’s Health Project (SFCHP) was established as a response to Hurricane Andrew and today provides comprehensive health care predominantly to minority, uninsured and underinsured children in rural and urban areas throughout Miami-Dade County, Florida. The staff provides these services on their state-of-the-art mobile medical clinic (MMC). Most of the patients seen on the MMC are uninsured school-aged children between 0-18 years of age. A number of barriers such as limited transportation, lack of information, language, cultural differences and financial obstacles prevent these families from obtaining preventive health care. SFCHP also provides care at nine school-based clinics, which serve over 10,000 students in schools that have a high percentage of low-income children in Miami-Dade County.

Over 75% of the families served by the SFCHP mobile clinic have been living in the United States for less than five years, with approximately 82% of Hispanic/Latino origin and 13% of Haitian origin. They are in need of comprehensive, primary health care, dental care, vision, and psychological counseling. Through nutritional evaluations conducted at community outreach events, it was found that more than 50% of the children seen by the SFCHP mobile clinic are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. More recently, new pockets of medically underserved children and teenagers who lack primary care providers and/or do not qualify for the State Child Health Insurance Program have been identified. 99% of the patients seen by the SFCHP mobile clinic are uninsured, and approximately 1% have Medicaid.