Based on a Blog by Anne O’Brien
Original Publication Date: 2/3/11
School Based Health Centers (SBHC) have some common characteristics. They are all located on school property and provide a wide range of physical and mental health services to students with parent permission. Services provided by SBHC meet the physical and mental health needs of students. Typically healthcare is provided to all students age 0 – 18 independent of an ability to pay. The primary goal of a school based health center is to provide care to students in low income areas and reduce absenteeism
School Based Health Centers have been shown to reduce hospitalization, inappropriate emergency room visits, and Medicaid expenses for the community. The team of practitioners (nurses, doctors, counselors, hygienists, etc.) work together to provide care to students.
On the campus of TBA Career-Tech Center healthcare is provided through the Youth Health and Wellness Center. This is partnership between TBAISD and the Grand Traverse Health Department. Students ages 10 – 21 are able to receive the types of services mentioned in this blog. During orientation parents are informed of the availability of the on campus health center and provided the option of giving permission at the time. Some of our students are over 18 and can authorize treatment themselves. During the year I’ve witnessed the health center in action as some of my students visited the center for various reasons. Not only did this provide a vital service to my students but they were not absent from class for more than a few minutes instead of missing the entire period/day. Although the jury is still out on whether providing school based healthcare will help close the achievement gap this is a GREAT program for all students but especially those from low income families. Hopefully school based healthcare will be more widely implemented.
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SBHC do sound like a good thing! As a teacher I could see the benefit of having a Dr. or nurse on school ground most of the time. It definitely would help out with students missing class for rountine checkups and such. Now if we could just get the orthodontist to set up shop at the middle school all my students would be at school all the time!
ReplyDeleteOur center, like the one discussed in the blog, is mainly staffed by nurse practitioners or physician's assistants. I liked the idea discussed in the blog about having hygienists and dentists available as well.
ReplyDelete