• Overview: Facts about School-Based Health Services
• Improving Access to Health Care
• School-Based Health Services and Maine's Legislators
• The MCA's School-Based Health Initiative
• Problem Behavior Prevention and School-Based Health Centers: Programs and Prospects
• American Academy of Pediatrics Report on School- Based Health Centers
• Maine School-Based Health Center Evaluation Project (I of 2)
• Maine School-Based Health Center Evaluation (2 of 2)Project
• Child Health
• Starting a School-Based Health Center
• School-Based Health - Fast Facts
• School-Based Health Centers In Maine
• Stories: Case in Point
• Resources
• National Assembly on School-Based Health Care

School-Based Health

School-Based Health Services and Maine's Legislators

The benefits of School-Based Health Centers include:

• Helping to increase youth access to health care. Receiving health care at school, especially for Maine's rural youth, helps them get health care services they might not otherwise receive.
  
  
• Providing preventive health care services. Children and adolescents are able to receive preventive care early on, decreasing the number of treatment services for preventable diseases or illnesses.
  
  
• Providing cost-effective health care services. Many uninsured families seek non-emergency services at hospital emergency rooms, which are much more expensive for the family and the community. School-based health center services fees are priced affordably so Maine's youth can get the health care they need.
  
  
• Addressing public health problems such as teen pregnancy, suicide, tobacco and drug use, sexually transmitted diseases, eating disorders, injury and violence, and chronic diseases. School-based health centers provide affordable and easily accessible services that reach many high-risk students.
  

Issues addressed in State guidelines for SBHCs include:

• Access to services
  
• Enrollment and parental consent
  
• Comprehensive health assessments
  
• Diagnosis/treatment of medical conditions
  
• Immunizations
  
• Laboratory testing
  
• Age-appropriate reproductive health services
  
• Health care, education, and promotion
  
• Mental health
  
• Dental care
  

How Legislators Can Help:

Legislators can play several roles in Maine's School-Based Health Centers policies. Mechanisms to increase access to health care for children include:

• Considering how bills related to health and education affect school-based health centers
  
• Encouraging private insurance reimbursement for school-based health centers
  
• Encouraging MaineCare funding for school-based health centers
  

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