501(c)(3) nonprofit · Southern California
When a child changes overnight, families deserve somewhere to turn.
We are building Southern California's first integrated center of excellence for PANDAS, PANS, and related post-infectious neuroimmune disorders — diagnosis, infusion treatment, family wellbeing, and insurance advocacy under one roof.
Our mission
Pediatric H.E.L.P. Organization exists to restore childhoods interrupted by PANDAS, PANS, and related post-infectious neuroimmune disorders — by delivering fast, expert, integrated medical and behavioral care; making that care accessible regardless of a family's ability to fight the system alone; and leading the advancement of the field through education, advocacy, and research.
These are treatable illnesses. Most children never get treated in time.
PANDAS and PANS occur when an infection provokes an immune response that inflames a child's brain. A previously healthy child can develop severe OCD, tics, rage, food refusal, and regression in a matter of days. Parents often know the exact week their child changed.
Prevalence applied at a commonly cited 1-in-200 basis. See our data and sources →
What it looks like
The core feature is a dramatic onset of obsessive-compulsive behavior and/or severe food restriction — arriving in days, not months — alongside some combination of:
- Tics — sudden motor or vocal tics that weren't there before
- Extreme anxiety and separation fears — a child who suddenly cannot be alone in a room
- Rage episodes and emotional swings — out of character, prolonged, frightening to everyone including the child
- Developmental regression — baby talk, bedwetting, loss of skills already mastered
- Handwriting and school performance falling apart — often the first thing a teacher notices
- Sleep disturbance, sensory sensitivities, and motor changes
PANDAS vs. PANS
PANDAS is the strep-specific subtype — tied to a streptococcal infection, prepubertal onset, relapsing with each new infection.
PANS is the broader umbrella — the same acute onset triggered by strep or Mycoplasma, influenza, Lyme, other viruses, or non-infectious immune triggers.
All PANDAS is PANS. Not all PANS is PANDAS.
What to ask your pediatrician
Ask whether an acute-onset neuropsychiatric presentation could have an infectious or immune trigger, and whether strep titers and a broader workup are appropriate.
Bring a written timeline of when symptoms started. The abruptness is diagnostically meaningful — it is the single most useful thing you can hand a physician.
The gap we exist to close
Southern California — the second-largest metro region in the country — has no dedicated, integrated nonprofit center for these children. Families face four barriers, over and over.
Delayed diagnosis
Because the symptoms look psychiatric, children are routed to mental-health care while the infectious and immune driver goes unrecognized. Families see provider after provider for months or years — losing the early window when treatment works best.
Fragmented care
Effective treatment needs pediatrics, immunology, infectious disease, psychiatry, and behavioral therapy working together. In practice they rarely coordinate, and no single clinician owns the child's care.
Insurance denials
Because no therapy is FDA-approved specifically for PANS/PANDAS, treatment — especially IVIG — has historically been denied as "experimental," forcing families to drain savings or go without.
Geographic deserts
True multidisciplinary programs are scarce and clustered at a handful of academic centers. Families fly across the country for care that should exist in their own county.
What we are building
Five integrated service lines, coordinated by one care team, so a family never has to assemble their own care from scattered providers.
Diagnostic & Treatment Clinic
Rapid multidisciplinary evaluation and evidence-guided medical care — treating the infection, calming the immune response, and treating symptoms — coordinated by pediatrics, immunology, and child psychiatry.
Learn more →Pediatric Infusion Center
A licensed, child-centered infusion suite delivering IVIG and related therapies in a calm, sensory-aware environment built for anxious children — not a general hospital floor.
Learn more →Family Wellbeing Center
ERP and CBT therapy, occupational and nutritional support, parent training, sibling programming, peer mentorship, and school reintegration. We treat the household, not just the patient.
Learn more →Insurance Navigation
A dedicated team handling benefit verification, prior authorization, and appeals — turning California's new coverage law from a statute into actual access for your child.
Learn more →Leadership & Education
Clinician training, an outcomes registry, and advocacy partnerships — raising regional recognition so the next family's diagnosis takes weeks instead of years.
Learn more →Why it has to be one place
Every one of these services exists somewhere in the system already. What doesn't exist in Southern California is one place that compresses diagnosis, delivers infusion, wraps the family in support, and fights the insurance battle on their behalf. That integration is the whole point.
Why now
California just changed what's possible
Assembly Bill 2105, effective January 1, 2025, requires state-regulated health plans to cover the prophylaxis, diagnosis, and treatment of PANDAS and PANS — explicitly including immunomodulatory therapy such as IVIG — and bars insurers from denying coverage based on prior diagnostic labels.
The state's own actuarial review estimated the mandate adds less than one cent per member per month, undercutting the historical "too expensive, too experimental" rationale. California is one of roughly 20 states that have now enacted PANS/PANDAS coverage laws.
For the first time, the care these children need is reimbursable care. What's missing is the place to deliver it.
The honest footnote
AB 2105 governs state-regulated plans. Self-funded employer plans under ERISA are not bound by it — which is exactly why our insurance navigation and appeals program is a core service and not an afterthought.
How navigation works →What this looks like from inside a family
Statistics make the case. Stories make it real.
“Ella,” age 6
A strep infection, then two weeks later a child washing her hands until they bled. Six months and four providers before anyone checked a strep titer.
Read the story →“Marcus,” age 10
Severe OCD, tics, and suicidal statements. Over $40,000 out of pocket, and an IVIG course denied as "experimental."
Read the story →A family of four
Two years in: one parent had left their job, savings were gone, and the younger sibling had started showing anxiety of his own.
Read the story →These are composite illustrations drawn from published clinical literature, not real patients. Read all three, and how our model changes them →
Where do you fit?
I think this is my child
Start with what PANDAS and PANS actually look like and what to bring to your pediatrician. Our clinic is still in development, so we can't evaluate your child yet — but the information here is free, sourced, and written for parents. Join the family list and we'll tell you the moment doors open.
Understand the conditionI'm a clinician, or I want to help
Pediatricians, child psychiatrists, immunologists, therapists, and school teams: join the referral network and our education program. Board members, advisors, parent advocates, and supporters — there's a role here, and most of them aren't financial.
See the ways to helpThese conditions are treatable. Treatment is time-sensitive.
Early, appropriate intervention — treating the infection, calming the immune response, supporting the child behaviorally — returns many children to full function. Every month of delay risks entrenched symptoms, lost schooling, and a family stretched past what it can carry. Closing the distance between what medicine can do and what families can actually reach is the entire reason this organization exists.