WELLNESS CENTER: To Offer Low-Income Families Preventive Care

      Escondido will begin construction in August of a $2.2 million wellness center, a state-of-the-art clinic designed to offer preventive care to low income families, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The project, a joint venture of the Escondido Community Health Center, Palomar Family Counseling and the North County Interfaith Council, is designed to "help poor families ward off illnesses through healthful lifestyles." According to Hannah Cohen, the Center's Development and Program Director, "The center is not a clinic for sick people. Rather, the services focus on keeping healthy parents and children from becoming ill." Those services will include asthma and diabetes management programs, newborn baby and well child exams, child psychology services and exercise programs. The wellness center will be one of the first centers to offer preventive health care, which is "a low priority for impoverished families." Project leaders have already raised $1.8 million of the necessary $2.2 million through private and public donations, and expect to raise the remaining $400,000 through grants and additional donations. Cohen anticipates nearly 7,000 people will use the center in its first year (Peterson, 7/26).