Melissa Albarenga, ASW

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Melissa Albarenga, ASW, is a Healthy Steps Specialist at MCC. Originally from East Los Angeles, Melissa is passionate about supporting children and families through compassionate, relationship-centered care. Her professional interest includes childhood development, maternal mental health and prevention as well as early intervention.

Melissa is bilingual in English and Spanish and values providing culturally responsive care that honors each family’s experiences and needs.

Her philosophy of care is rooted in partnership, empathy and advocacy. She believes that every family deserves to be heard, respected and supported and she strives to create a welcoming environment where patients can access the care and support they need to thrive.

You have multiple options. You do not need to have insurance or U.S. citizenship.
Call your doctor or urgent care center. If you have insurance, you can call the number on your insurance card to get help with making an appointment.
Find a Test-to-Treat location, which are sites that offer COVID testing and treatment services, near you. To find a site, call the statewide COVID-19 hotline at 833-422-4255.
Make a free phone or video appointment through California’s free telehealth provider and talk to a health care provider the same or next day. Call 833-686-5051 or go to com/covidca.
Some pharmacies, such as CVS and Walgreens, have pharmacists that may be able to give you a prescription for treatment. Call your pharmacy to see if they offer this service.

Call the statewide COVID-19 hotline for questions and help with finding free COVID treatment, at 833-422-4255.

As soon as you have new symptoms such as a runny nose, cough, sore throat or fever, you should immediately test for COVID-19 and ask a doctor about treatment if you are positive.

We have effective tools to take good care of ourselves if we get COVID-19.
COVID-19 treatments are safe, free, widely available, and highly effective at preventing COVID-19 illness from becoming serious.
Benefits
○ Scientific evidence shows that COVID-19 treatments work to prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19 by up to 50-88% (cut the risk in half or more)
○ Early evidence also suggests they may lower the risk of developing long COVID symptoms.
○ Treatments like the Paxlovid pill can also prevent the virus from multiplying in your body and infecting more of your cells, which can help you test negative sooner.
They’re available at no charge, regardless of whether you have insurance or your citizenship status
They are recommended for most adults and some teens.
Treatments must be taken within 5 days of testing positive and when symptoms begin to be effective and work well. Seek treatment while your symptoms are still mild, do not wait for your symptoms to get worse.

So if you start feeling a runny nose, cough, or generally not like yourself, act fast and take a COVID test. And if you test positive, seek treatment right away.

Remember – if you test and treat, you can beat COVID-19!

Melissa Albarenga, ASW

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