School-Based Health Centers

Education Plus Health is a nonprofit organization committed to improving access to high quality healthcare and driving better educational outcomes for underserved communities. Through the school-based health centers in Title One schools, the organization provides holistic health care in collaboration with students’ primary care provider and specialists as needed, with special focus on the core areas of concern in our communities. In some schools the organization provides an integrated school nursing model within the school-based health center for total health and wellness and compliance with all State mandates for school nursing. Ultimately the program works to improve health and academic outcomes through decreased absenteeism and better health outcomes for students.

Nurse practitioners and their clinical team work daily to provide:

  • acute care, chronic disease management, and preventive care including sports physicals
  • diagnoses and treatment for acute and chronic disease needs
  • care management, coordination, and referrals in collaboration with primary care physicians and specialists
  • universal risk screening and assessment for mental health, substance use and abuse, sexual health, obesity, and asthma control
  • SBIRT delivered by nurse practitioners for substance use prevention and intervention (Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral & Treatment)
  • reproductive health care for teens
  • mental health counseling in select schools
  • classroom education and school-wide population health efforts

Our community health workers serve as:

  • Asthma and diabetes coach and educator
  • Nutrition and healthy decision-making coach
  • Motivational coach into services for behavioral health counseling and more
  • Substance use risk reduction coach
  • Liaison to resources for food insecurity, housing, health insurance, and more

Benefits of School-Based Health Centers

  • Students who use school-based health centers have better grade point averages, get more physical activity, and eat more healthy foods than their counterparts.
  • School-based health centers reduce absenteeism, emergency room utilization, hospitalization, and Medicaid costs overall—particularly for children with chronic health conditions like asthma.
  • School-based health centers increase the use of primary care particularly for vulnerable youth who live in poverty, and for adolescents, one of the groups most likely to lack routine preventive care.
  • Asthma management in school-based health centers decreases hospitalization rates by up to 75-85% and improves the use of peak flow meters and inhalers, saving approximately $970 per asthmatic child per school year.
  • Students with access to school-based health centers are more likely to get reproductive preventive care, be screened for a sexually transmitted disease or infection, receive sexual health education, and use protection or abstain from sexual activity.
  • School-based health centers reduce Medicaid expenditures related to inpatient, drug, and emergency department use.
  • Mental health counseling has been repeatedly identified as the leading reason for student visits.
  • One study found that “inner-city students were 21 times more likely to make mental-health related visits to school-based health centers than to community health centers.”

National Partnerships

Education Plus Health is a member and the emerging affiliate for Pennsylvania to the national School-Based Health Alliance. The School-Based Health Alliance has been the national voice for school based health care since 1995. Education Plus Health is working with the support of the Alliance to advance policies and frameworks in Pennsylvania that enable the growth of school-based health centers across the state.
http://www.sbha4all.org

To bring a school-based health center to your school, contact Julie Cousler, Executive Director at Julie@educationplushealth.com.

Get Involved

To bring a center to your school, email Julie Cousler Emig.

References

Walker SC, Kerns SE, Lyon AR, Bruns EJ, Cosgrove TJ. Impact of School-Based Health Center use on academic outcomes. The Journal of Adolescent Health. Mar 2010;46(3):251-257.

McNall MA, Lichty LF, Mavis B. The impact of school-based health centers on the health outcomes of middle school and high school students. American Journal of Public Health. Sep 2010;100(9):1604-1610.

Geierstanger SP, Amaral G, Mansour M, Walters SR. School-Based Health Centers and Academic Performance: Research, Challenges, and Recommendations. Journal of School Health. Nov 2004;74(9):347-352.

Soleimanpour S, Geierstanger S. (2015). Documenting the Link between School-Based Health Centers and Academic Success: A Guide for the Field. California School-Based Health Alliance.

Gall G, Pagano ME, Desmond MS, Perrin JM, Murphy JM. Utility of Psychosocial Screening at a School-Based Health Center. Journal of School Health. Sep 2000;70(7):292-298.

Webber MP, Carpiniello KE, Oruwariye T, Lo Y, Burton WB, Appel DK. Burden of Asthma in Inner-City Elementary School Children: Do School-Based Health Centers Make a Difference? Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Feb 2003;157(2):125-129.

Nordin JD, Solberg LI, Parker ED. Adolescent primary care visit patterns. Annals of Family Medicine. Nov-Dec 2010;8(6):511-516.

Irwin CE, Jr., Adams SH, Park MJ, Newacheck PW. Preventive care for adolescents: few get visits and fewer get services. Pediatrics. Apr 2009;123(4):e565-572.

Guo JJ, Jang R, Keller KN, McCracken AL, Pan W, Cluxton RJ. Impact of School-Based Health Centers on Children with Asthma. Journal of Adolescent Health. Oct 2005;37(4):266-274.

Lurie N, Bauer EJ, Brady C. Asthma Outcomes at an Inner-City School-Based Health Center. Journal of School Health. Jan 2001;71(1):9-16.

Braun RA, Provost JM. Bridging the gap: using school-based health services to improve chlamydia screening among young women. American Journal of Public Health. 2010;100(9):1624-1629.

Crosby RA, Lawrence JS. Adolescents’ Use of School‐Based Health Clinics for Reproductive Health Services: Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Journal of School Health. 2000;70(1):22-27.

Minguez M, Santelli JS, Gibson E, Orr M, Samant S. Reproductive health impact of a school health center. The Journal of Adolescent Health. Mar 2015;56(3):338-344.

Waszak C, Neidell S. SchoolBased and School-Linked Clinics: Update 1991. Washington, DC: Center for Population Options; 1991.

Juszczak L, Melinkovich P, Kaplan D. Use of Health and Mental Health Services by Adolescents Across Multiple Delivery Sites. Journal of Adolescent Health. Jun 2003;32(6 Suppl):108-118. 5.