Chinatown Public Health Center – What We Do

Primary Care

A full scope of ambulatory health services is offered, including: preventative, diagnostic, and therapeutic treatments; prenatal, gynecology and postpartum care; children health and disability prevention (CHDP) examinations; onsite and telephone medical advice; insurance eligibility screening and enrollment; social service and counseling; medical nutrition therapy; health education; and clinical pharmacy services.

Dental Clinic 

The Dental Clinic at Chinatown Public Health Center is dedicated to serving the young people of San Francisco. Originally targeting school age children, its services have expanded to cover young adults up to 21 years old. Pregnant women of any age are also eligible for prenatal counseling and minor restorative needs. Most of the current patients are covered by the Denti-Cal or the Healthy Kids program. Those not covered by an insurance program will be billed according to a sliding scale fee schedule based on family income. The Dental Clinic will take care of most preventive procedures such as examination and cleaning. Normal fillings and extractions are provided. Orthodontics, root canal therapy, prosthetic, and advanced oral surgery are not offered. The clinic is staffed on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8:00 am until 5:00 pm. It is located on the second floor in Room 228. Visits are by scheduled appointments only so that patients can be given sufficient time for their treatment. The staff is fluent in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin and can be reached by calling (415) 364-7636.

Women, Infant and Children (WIC) Supplemental Nutrition Program

WIC is a special supplemental nutrition program for women who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or have recently had a baby, infants, and children under five years of age. The WIC Program provides supplemental foods (such as milk, cheese, cereal, eggs, beans, peanut butter, and juice), breastfeeding and nutrition education, and referral to healthcare.

Community Health Education

The CPHC Health Education Services provide culturally-relevant and linguistically-appropriate services to the Chinese speaking population. These services include:

• California Child Care Course in Cantonese and Mandarin (16 hours) – Infant/Child CPR, Child Care First Aid (8 hours) and Preventive Health, Safety & Nutrition (8 hours)
• CPR/ First Aid/ Preventive Health, Safety & Nutrition/ Mandated Child Abuse Reporter Training in Cantonese and Mandarin
• Bi-weekly Chinese Women Cancer Support Group – for Chinese-speaking women with cancer
• Chinese Cancer Survivors Peer Support Program – One on one telephone support for newly diagnosed cancer clients
• Stop Smoking Classes & Smokefree Living Tea Talk – classes for smokers and family members
• Chronic Disease Self-Help Course – Healthier Living workshops for people living with chronic health conditions.

For Course details and registration, click here. 

Community Nutrition

The CPHC Nutrition Services unit offers nutrition clinics for individual counseling and population-based nutritional intervention projects: Network for a Healthy California – Chinese Project and Lowfat Chinese Cuisine Project. By using the Spectrum of Prevention model, the Network for a Healthy California – Chinese Project funded by USDA through California Department of Public Health promotes daily physical activity and consumption of fruits and vegetable through community and media outreach, individual consumers empowerment, coalition building, policy setting and collaboration with community partners and has created the We Can!®Chinese Families Campaign. It is a bilingual nutrition and physical activity program, focusing on obesity prevention in the Chinese community. The focus is to use the traditional Chinese family concept and have the whole family involved in learning and adopting a healthy eating and active living lifestyle together. The Lowfat Chinese Cuisine Project develops culturally-appropriate nutrition materials that include brochures, cookbooks and videos.

Community Outreach

In collaboration with undergraduate and graduate students from the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco, clinicians and health care administrators from the Community Health Network, San Francisco Consortium Clinics, independent physician associations throughout San Francisco, and leadership within SFDPH Communicable Disease Control and Prevention unit as part of the city-wide San Francisco Hep B Free Campaign, CPHC offers free screenings and low-cost vaccinations for Hepatitis B. CPHC also conducts community classes to raise awareness, partners with local community agencies to enhance their capacity to educate, test and vaccinate clients who utilize their services, and serves on the steering committee that oversees citywide plans to develop clinical practice guidelines.

Language Services

• English
• Cantonese
• Mandarin
• Tagalog
• Vietnamese