School-Based Clinics Get a Shot in the Arm

Parents, mostly recent immigrant mothers with young children in tow, trickled steadily into a campus medical clinic, a beige bungalow perched in a far corner at Columbus Middle School in Canoga Park.

They were eager to volunteer as classroom aides, but were required first to submit to a skin test for exposure to tuberculosis.

“I want to volunteer but can’t until I take the test,” explained Rita Davila in a thick Australian accent. The mother of two said the clinic makes the task quick and easy.

Across the Valley, in the bustling administration building at San Fernando High School, a stream of teenagers inched into the cramped quarters of the nursing office and campus medical clinic.

They, too, were seeking solutions to a wide range of medical problems, from headaches and acne to depression.

The two scenes differed widely in scope and clientele, but their premise is identical: that healthy bodies are fundamental to successful learning.

With that goal, school and health officials alike are applauding the announcement by the county Board of Supervisors of a plan to pump as much as $50 million a year into expanding a network of school-based health clinics within the Los Angeles Unified School District. The plan would form a partnership among the county, the schools and the federal government.

“I see this as a very positive thing,” said George Bartleson, an assistant principal at Columbus, which has the only school-based clinic in the West Valley. “The more you work on the health of a child, the better his learning achievements.”

As district and county officials prepare to approve the partnership this week, school and health officials are drafting their “wish lists.”

School-based clinics are being considered, for example, at Kennedy High School in Granada Hills and at Maclay Middle School in Pacoima, said Assistant Supt. Sally Coughlin, who is in charge of student health and human services. “There are a lot of potentials. The need is definitely there,” she said.

“We intend to look at each area and do an assessment of where the most needy kids are,” Coughlin added. “We will look community by community, to see what is needed.”

A main advantage to school-based clinics, officials said, is that most students can be treated immediately and returned to class, rather than sent home with orders to see a doctor.

More than one-third of students in the district, and even higher numbers in some areas of the San Fernando Valley, come from families that lack medical insurance and cannot afford private care. The alternative is waiting for hours at a public clinic, which many working parents cannot accommodate and which forces students to miss hours, even days, of class time.

The San Fernando High clinic, one of the first three pilot programs launched in the district 12 years ago, is the busiest by far, with more than 10,000 patient visits last year. The program “is maxed out,” Coughlin said, and officials are considering ways to extend the hours or add Saturdays to the weekday program, conducted from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“We’re almost to the point where we are totally saturated,” said Jan Marquard, who supervises the clinic, operated by the Northeast Valley Health Corp. “We could use three more staff members, but where would they sit?” she asked, gesturing to the jammed-up desks and examining rooms.

Mental health programs or psychological counseling account for more than half the total visits at the San Fernando clinic, said Michael Godfrey, district coordinator of school-based health clinics.

San Fernando was the only clinic in Los Angeles to receive a federal mental health service grant several years ago, and the program quickly grew, Godfrey said. He added that a high level of anxiety is typical among adolescents nationwide, but few programs deal with the issue.

Janis Lake, who coordinates programs at the Canoga Park clinic, called the proposed partnership “very, very exciting. Rather than struggling to keep this clinic open, we might have some support.”

That clinic opened two years ago but only last spring expanded services to treat a variety of minor ailments and injuries two days a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., Lake said.

The clinic also offers other services throughout the week, such as a recent seminar for parents of children with asthma. The clinic in the last year served almost 800 patients, mostly children from a complex of eight schools that feed into Canoga Park High.

“Children and their parents feel comfortable coming to a clinic at the school,” Lake said. “The kids aren’t afraid, and the school is the hub of the community. Many parents don’t have transportation to get to other clinics.

“The thrust is to improve student achievement, but to do that we have to make sure there are no health-related barriers to learning,” Lake added.