Presenters
Summary
In October, 2019, Community Health of Central Washington (CHCW) embarked on a health care journey to improve access to medical and behavioral health care to the students at Davis high school in Yakima, Washington. Yakima is a rural, medically underserved, low income county with 85% of the 2,400 students at Davis high on Apple Health Care. The clinic was opened knowing that funding would continually be a struggle, but that it was the right thing to do, we needed to address the disparity of medical and behavioral health care to the adolescent community. The Davis Health Clinic is a fully functioning medical clinic located inside Davis high school that offers integrated behavior health care to work with patients with multiple adverse childhood experiences (ACE’s) and social determinants of health (SDoH). While our model of care is proving successful within the school setting, we continue to search for ways to expand with limited to no external funding. In this presentation, we will discuss our successes and struggles in opening an integrated health clinic in a rural, central Washington town.
Explaining challenges related to telehealth with adolescents and navigating the challenges of COVID-19 and the school district
Objectives
- Understand the utility of PCBH in a school-based health center
- How to assess SDoH in a high school setting with the support of a school-based health clinic
- Understand budget challenges that may arise in developing a school-based health clinic in an area without a tax levy
