Updates and News

California Virtual Teen Gupport Group

started with a City Health Los Angeles support group and branched off to work with South Pasadena High School students. Our focus is on the adolescent experience and how to smooth the transitions for teens struggling with IBD through online and in-person support groups. So far, in-person support groups have been on hold due to the pandemic.

We have also been working extensively with teen support groups from across the state to provide comprehensive education on Ulcerative Colitis. In addition to colitis, we have been leading discussions regarding school, mental health management, and balancing academics and extracurriculars.

We have started an association with Crohn's and Colitis, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating people about various medical ailments. We are beginning the local branch for colitis by creating more teen support groups and rebranding the discussions as something beyond IBD. We want to spread awareness of the medical aspects of IBD through research and we want to implement Crohn's and Colitis 'Power Of Two' policy to connect two high school IBD patients to gain knowledge from each other about topics other than IBD. There is another branch of Crohn's and Colitis starting in Arizona and we are brainstorming and planning with them to combine our messages to gain a cohesive goal to reach more teenagers.