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School-Based Health Centers: A Long Road to TravelHERE IS THE interesting but frustrating point about school-based health centers: For the past 20 years, the centers have expanded from a handful of projects in the early 1980s to 1500 nationwide in the school year 2001-2002 (State Survey of School-Based Health Centers, 2002. Washington, DC: Center for Health and Health Care in Schools, The George Washington University; unpublished data). Professional organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (Elk Grove Village, Ill), the Society for Adolescent Medicine (Blue Springs, Mo), the National Association of School Nurses (Castle Rock, Colo), and the American School Health Association (Kent, Ohio) have all adopted positions supporting the centers and their capacity to overcome barriers to health care for underserved children.1-3 Research studies have indicated that the centers improve children's access to care and reduce costs.4-7 Now, in a study in this month's ARCHIVES, Webber and colleagues8 suggest the potential for better clinical outcomes for children through school-based interventions. However, despite the steady growth in the number of school-based health centers and promising data concerning their benefits, there has been little federal funding for research on these centers and few federal dollars spent on their expansion. Given oft-repeated concerns about racial disparities in health status and health care, acknowledged barriers to care for the poor and uninsured, and documentation that the centers serve these needy populations, it is worth considering why a greater federal response has not occurred. See full story at: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/157/2/118.html Updated: Sep 4th, 2008 - 15:24:01 |
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