The new center is a branch of the Vista Community Clinic, a 30-year old clinic that provides services and programs to thousands of Oceanside and Vista residents. The clinic, which was dedicated earlier this week in a grand-opening ceremony, opened last month for teen patients. Teens who visit the center will receive free peer-counseling, condoms and medical exams. Nurse practitioners do exams for patients who want them, and young counselors like Contreras offer advice and lessons on safe sex. Counselors have to go through at least 40 hours of intensive training, said Patrick Mitchell, coordinator of teen programs for the new clinic.
All services are confidential.
Nurses and counselors are paid with funds from the California Wellness Foundation, a statewide organization that grants health-care funds. Eastside, which is near Oceanside High, has one of the highest teen birth rates in the state with about 129 births to teen-age mothers per 1,000 teens, Mitchell said. About five to 10 teen-agers visit the center each day, but Mitchell and his six young counselors are trying to raise the number of patients, he said. The clinic has received some resistance from parents angry about safe-sex lessons, Mitchell said. But realistically, kids are having sex or are at least talking about it.