Comments on: School: Where Health and Education Can Meet /school-health-education-can-meet/ Future of Nursing Mon, 26 Sep 2016 00:42:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.0.10 By: Emily K. /school-health-education-can-meet/#comment-61 Mon, 26 Sep 2016 00:42:00 +0000 /?p=8804#comment-61 The goal of school-centered approach to improve community health is to improve access to health care and services by working collaboratively with the community systems already place. School-based health centers (SBHCs) are an example of such community systems. According to Dr. Olga Acosta Price (2016), some of the steps that need to be taken to address the challenges of misaligned missions of health and educational organizations are more studies of school-based health approaches, refined Medicaid reimbursement rules, more flexible public funding of SBHCs, partnership with local business to improve coordination and use of technology, and collaboration with academic institutions and other local organizations (Price, 2016). One of the major emphases of SBHCs is to utilize the resources available in education and healthcare to address preventable emotional and behavioral health problems in children and adolescents.
This topic is particularly interesting to me as an educator myself in middle and high school settings and having seen firsthand the need for emotional and behavioral health services for students. In order for students to take advantage of the educational opportunities given to them, the students need to have stability in individual, familial, environmental, and social settings of their lives. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many of the students who are at educational risk. By directly linking the accessibility for children and adolescents to receive appropriate care, this could have much positive effect in improving existing or preventing major emotional and behavioral issues, such as substance abuse, PTSD, and issues with violence and anger.
Along the lines of collaboration between educational centers and health care providers, the trusting relationship that children and adolescents foster in these settings respectively and, in the case of SBHCs, collectively can have additive positive effect the overall well-being of the individuals. For example, children will be able to have access to these services with less time burden on the parents to find outside providers. Also, the accessibility to the services can improve school attendance, or vice versa students may have more regular access to care as a result of the convenience of service accessibility. The rapport that educators and healthcare providers have with the children can also mutually benefit the positive end goals of both professional parties.
In addition to the positive effect on children and adolescent emotional and behavioral health, I believe that there is a practical financial incentive for the government to provide easier access to funding in these services, as well as in the private sector. By allowing access for healthcare providers to enter public school settings, there is opportunity to have better access to that population and the services rendered. Therefore, the endeavor of SBHCs is a beneficial project for the community while it can also help the community organizations and institutions. All in all, the growth of SBHCs is a positive collaborative project that I am excited to see continue to grow in the future. I think it provides excellent opportunities for advanced practice nurses play a critical role in bridging a gap in accessibility to healthcare.

Price, O. A. (2016, July 13). School-centered approaches to improve community health: lessons from school based health centers. Economic Studies at Brookings, 5. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Price-Layout2.pdf

]]> By: campaignforaction /school-health-education-can-meet/#comment-50 Fri, 23 Sep 2016 17:54:00 +0000 /?p=8804#comment-50 Approve.

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