Roadrunners have a cost-free and reliable source of health and wellness. The Rio Hondo College Student Health and Psychological Services Office offers in-person and online medical and counseling services to enrolled students and has recently added two on-campus health and wellness vending machines.
Located in the Student Services Building’s SS-230, Student Health and Psychological Services provides in-person medical visits with a nurse practitioner on an appointment or walk-in basis on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Monday through Friday individual therapy with licensed therapists and therapist trainees. The center also offers Rio students 24-hour access “anytime from anywhere” to telehealth medical providers and licensed mental health providers through TimelyCare. To schedule a televisit, go to timelycare.com/riohondo.
“Students come here for help, either medical or psychological,” explained Nubia Cardenas, the center’s administrative assistant. “They come because they need care.” The cost of treatment and medical supplies are covered by students’ $23 health fee as part of RHC registration. “We have snacks, we have over-the-counter medication, hygiene items, first aid items like bandages and ice packs,” Cardenas said.
“The only thing we don’t have all the time are pregnancy tests. Those are only available Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They are done through our nurse practitioner and his assistant.”
Although the center doesn’t provide take-home pregnancy tests, they do provide tampons, pads, condoms, and overdose prevention supplies.
New this Fall are two on-campus health and wellness vending machines that are associated with the student health center. The blue vending machine in the upper quad is a County of Los Angeles Public Health Community Health Station that provides free COVID-19 antigen tests, overdose prevention products, and sexual health kits. Located at the base of the stairwell between the Administration and Science buildings, the station’s touchscreen interface asks the user optional demographic questions and then dispenses the requested item.
The overdose prevention kits contain Narcan, a life-saving medication that can reverse an opioid overdose and five individually packaged fentanyl test strips. The sexual health kits contain one internal condom, non-spermicidal lubricant, and five external condoms.
Located on the first floor of the LRC by the South entrance, the cashless SimpliChek vending machine is not free, but offers low-cost products for sale. The cashless wellness kiosk sells snacks and over-the-counter medications like Pepto Bismo, Tums, Advil and Tylenol; flu, covid, and pregnancy tests; personal hygiene products like contact solution, bandaids, oral care products and deodorant; and sexual health essentials like the Morning After Pill, dental dams, and condoms.
To meet student emotional needs, the health center also provides workshops, trainings, 12 unique monthly support groups, and two weekly events with the on-staff marriage and family therapists, Mindfulness Mondays with Inez Sacido and Walk & Talk Wednesdays with Glen Heap. The bright and busy bulletin boards in the hallway outside the office advertise the extensive amount of student health resources and activities.
The center even offers a “serenity room” that can be used by one to two students at a time. It is a place for students to relax and decompress, complete with yoga mats, flickering flameless candles, and a misting aroma therapy machine.
For more information, visit the Rio Hondo College Student Health and Psychological Services Office in SS-230, call (562) 908-3438, or visit their website at Student Health Services
