providing mental health resources to community members through partnerships with local law enforcement, schools, and the Public Health department. We are honored to have Christine as part of our governing board and look forward to partnering together to improve the health of our community in the years to come. READ FULL NOMINATION BELOW:

Health Plan of San Joaquin / Mountain Valley Health Plan (“Health Plan”) is honored to nominate Christine Noguera, CEO of Community Medical Centers, Inc. (CMC), for ACAP’s Leadership in Advocacy Award. Noguera currently serves on HPSJ’s 13- member San Joaquin County Health Commission, the governing board of HPSJ.

Noguera is a recognized leader in the community – not only because of her dedicated partnership with the health plan, but because of her passion and support in advocating for health plan members, Medi-Cal beneficiaries, migrant farmworkers, the unsheltered, immigrant communities, and other vulnerable populations.

CMC is celebrating its 45th anniversary as a growing private, non-profit Federally Qualified Health Center that continues to provide open access to care for those in need. Under Noguera’s leadership, there has been a more integrated approach to health care and improved services for patients in the last decade. These patients include low-income, uninsured, underinsured, and those on public insurance.

Noguera has expanded CMC from a group of 11 health centers s to a network of 31 sites and 10 mobile units offering comprehensive services that continue to evolve. Noguera has made sure that CMC is expanding to meet the changing needs of our community, keeping the priorities of access, low barriers to care, and cultural competency foremost. Under her leadership, CMC’s patient base has increased by over 20% and, due to the broader scope of services, the number of visits has doubled from approximately 200,000 in 2014 to over 400,000 in 2022. CMC  has locations that are now open later and have Saturday hours to ensure that low- income, working families can be seen for services and care after “normal” business hours.

Since the beginning of her journey at CMC in 2014, Noguera has been able to grow the scope of services rendered by the organization. Before, there were no specialty services offered, but Noguera’s team has been able to add more specialty services and programs provided by the FQHC. “(This) has been one of my greatest joys to watch grow and progress,” Noguera states. “The growing need for behavioral health services has always been here but hasn’t always been recognized or addressed. What is different now from many years ago is that we are asking questions and doing assessments. Before, the health centers didn’t ask questions because the resources weren’t there. We didn’t have the mental health programs we so desperately needed then, but now we do.”

From working in the Peace Corps, assisting with vaccinating communities in Latin America, to being the initial program developer of what we now know as the Family PACT program, Noguera’s passion to serve others and see critical programs grow and develop is incomparable.

Noguera was part of the team that provided the critical data needed to grow what is now known as the Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program (CPSP) throughout California, providing comprehensive services including psychosocial and SUD assessments, nutrition education, and case management for low-income individuals who are pregnant and in the postpartum period.

With recent funding from Health Plan, Noguera has led the effort to purchase a van that will serve as a mobile mammography unit in the community. She is diligently working with her team to get this new program off the ground, so community members have easier access to routine screenings.

Long before the State of California implemented the official Street Medicine program, Noguera was championing CMC’s critical work to help unsheltered communities in sloughs, rivers, deltas, and pop-up communities. “The recession of 2008 created anxiety and depression in the Stockton community that went untreated,” Noguera says. “The COVID-19 pandemic added additional stresses for families and adolescents, in terms of isolation and lack of jobs. Because of the pandemic, people lost jobs and homes, and the numbers of homeless went way up. The pandemic really put a spotlight on the situation. There were at-risk people living

in communal spaces that needed assistance. For a long time, we have been doing health care for the homeless at encampments, but the work these last few years has deepened our connections with community members and built a lot of trust so we can help get them services.”

Noguera has worked to connect Gleason House in Stockton, CA — a dedicated site where no-charge services are offered to unsheltered community members — more firmly with the community and partners working in the same space. Noguera’s passion to serve the homeless extends to a broader goal of working with a collaborative group of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to provide more services. “Housing is important, but wraparound services are just as important. We need to partner with CBOs and physicians to continue to address mental health and substance-use issues.”

One of Noguera’s proudest moments has been the newly created Mobile Community Response Team (MCRT). This team is completing groundbreaking work to help address crises in the community through a partnership with local law enforcement, schools, and the Public Health department. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, many communities were seeing the need to provide alternatives to 911 for those experiencing mental health issues. Faith in the Valley reached out to Noguera, seeking her expertise in starting such a program in Stockton. Through collaboration and innovation, a three-year demonstration project (MCRT) was funded and implemented.

The program has three teams of CMC staff (consisting of Case Manager, Medical Assistant, Licensed Clinical Social Worker) that work with first responders to assess numerous emergency calls (i.e. suicide attempts, overdoses, elderly assistance). The goal is to assist the individual at the site, then follow up with the individual or their caretaker to move them into treatment (and hopefully avoid future crises). The teams gather and evaluate the data from this project to aid with future project funding. ”CMC has 25 years of street outreach under our belts  and our teams have been able to build on that by strengthening communication with law enforcement and building trust with the community,” Noguera states.

Other notable projects and achievements led by Noguera:

• Opening access to comprehensive primary care for those in need and ensuring that the health-care system can be easily navigated by patients, including migrant farmworkers who make up 12 percent of CMC’s patient.
• Maintaining active Healthcare for the Homeless programs in San Joaquin and Solano.
• Growing the Behavioral Health (BH) program at The BH program started with three clinicians and has now grown to over 30, including health navigators, case managers, community health workers and more. “Behavioral health should be offered in an integrated setting with an emphasis on prevention. We don’t want people to escalate into severe mental illness,” Noguera said. “Building a base of easily accessible mental health services is very important in avoiding and preventing people needing more advanced, severe mental health care,” Noguera states.
• Opening the CMC Respite Center in downtown This location is a safe space where individuals struggling with substance-use disorders can stay and receive counseling, medical care, and other services that will help prepare them for the next step in their recovery. “You come down from your high, you’re ready to work on your addiction, but you find there is not a place for you yet,” Noguera said. “This gives them an alternate place to stay for up to two weeks.” The enter has received over 1200 referrals and approximately 800 enrolled in care from January 2022 to June 2023.
• Acquiring the Rock Building, a pillar of the Black community in Stockton, CA, where CMC plans to develop a new health.
• Opening the Waterloo Clinic in a Stockton, CA, neighborhood where alcoholism and drug addiction are The clinic offers standard medical, dental, and pediatric services, but also a sobering center, recovery center, and substance-use disorder facilities. Where five years ago it had three behavioral health staffers, it now has 26.

Noguera has stated, “I want to instill in others a vision of what integrated services are and why there is such a need for more specialties and BH services. There is no way I can help move change forward without being part of the discussion and part of the change itself. Watching our organization and services grow allows me to see just how much the quality of care for our patients improves and grows.”