We Can’t Afford Not to Supply School-Based Healthcare
January 18, 2018
By: Sally Lemke
Source: The Hechinger Report
CHICAGO — Here’s a devastating fact for youth living in underserved neighborhoods: Poor health can translate into poor school attendance, lower educational achievement and a shorter life.
Now here’s a better one: School-based healthcare offers this group a chance to beat the odds.
Offered through safety-net clinics, school-based health centers provide primary, preventive and mental-health services to the children and youth who can’t otherwise access quality healthcare.
The centers are powerful tools for addressing health equity because they not only increase access to care but also promote educational attainment.
Research shows that kids in schools with health centers are 22 percent more likely to have a healthcare visit in the past year.
As an administrator for three school-based health centers serving five schools and 1,400 students on Chicago’s West Side, I see the benefits directly.
A new ninth-grader at one school…