Hawaii mining W.Va. school-based health

Sep. 30—OAK HILL — New River Health's school-based health center model has proven to be a major benefit to children and communities in Fayette and surrounding counties over the years.

On Monday, a Community Clinic of Maui representative visited the Oak Hill school campus to gain insight into what makes local efforts successful, as his organization looks to expand school-based health outreach in Hawaii.

The contingent also visited Camden Family Health (Richwood High School and Gauley River Elementary) on Monday. Tuesday's school-based health center visits included Cabin Creek Health Systems (Riverside High School) and Family Care (Mary C. Snow Elementary and McKinley Middle School). Wednesday featured attendance at the Ohio School-Based Health Alliance's annual meeting. Finally, they will visit school-based health centers in Cincinnati, Ohio on Thursday.

In New River Health's situation, school-based health centers are conveniently located inside schools or on or near school campuses. The association's eight school-based health centers see students, parents, teachers and community members for primary care, and NRH officials stress that the school-based health operation helps keep students healthier and in school.

New River Health, a federally qualified health center, has offered full-service clinics with medical, behavioral health and dental staff in schools in Fayette, Raleigh and Nicholas counties for over 25 years. Such school-based health centers have proven to be instrumental in reducing absenteeism among school staff and students and increasing access to the various needs of West Virginia's student population, officials stress.

According to Cindy Whitlock, NRH's director of school health, there are current school sites in Nicholas County (a trailer serving Nicholas County High and Summersville Middle students), in Raleigh County (Independence high and middle schools and Coal City Elementary), and Fayette County (Oak Hill High, Oak Hill Middle/New River Primary, New River Intermediate, Fayetteville PK-8, and Valley PK-8, the latter through a full-service public site at Smithers).

NRH is currently creating a new work space in the OHMS/NRP building that was not originally in the school plan, but "Serving the students/staff was always in the NRH plan," said Whitlock. That space, expected to be ready in mid-October, will be a revamped classroom with furnishings and staff to be provided by NRH. "Remodeling a classroom is one of three physical concepts we use for (school health)," said Whitlock. "The other two are built into the school like NRI with grant money sought by NRH, and an outside-the-walls structure like a double wide."

The NRH school sites are open during school hours, with funding from grants/patient insurance. While most of the centers are open to others besides students, they don't replace family doctors, dentists and counselors, NRH officials said.

Dr. John Vaz, CEO of the Community Clinic of Maui, toured New River Health's Oak Hill High School, New River Primary/Oak Hill Middle School, and New River Intermediate wellness centers to learn about school-based health centers. He was accompanied Monday by Paula Fields, vice-president of consulting and technical assistance for the School-Based Health Alliance in Washington, D.C., and John Kennedy of the WV Primary Care Association, as well as local school administrators and health care professionals, Gary Hough, the superintendent of Fayette County Schools, and John Schultz, CEO of New River Health.

"John's leadership role in the Primary Care Association and his background in starting school health sites in other locations, as well as the current services NRH provides in three counties, made NRH rise to the top of their "look list,'" Whitlock said of Schultz.

"We are looking at community health center-run school-based health centers in Hawaii," Vaz explained Monday morning. A looming project will feature a collaboration between the CDC, the Department of Health and the Department of Education in Hawaii, he said.

There are 14 community health centers in Hawaii, Vaz noted, and "just one of those has a school-based health center." There are none on the island of Maui, where he is located. The Community Clinic of Maui's exploration was boosted in part by interaction with the School-Based Health Alliance in Washington, D.C.

Discussing some of the rural pockets of Hawaii outside of the central tourism bubble, Vaz says sometimes "we struggle with resources (such as transportation logistics and other areas). We have a lot to learn (from West Virginia) how school-based health centers overcame some of those barriers." West Virginia has "30 years of doing it well, and we're just starting out."

He said this week's visit helped him gain some knowledge about how individuals at the education level and the policy level, school principals and health professionals "till the soil to prepare the community" for successful outreach.

While grants to provide operational funds, budgets and policies are at the core of such endeavors, Vaz said, "What I heard most was trust, and there's been a lot of work done to get trust going between the different partners in the project."

Peering into the future, he said, "It's hard to generalize (a timeline). We're one of the 14 health centers. We are on the island of Maui, and every island is so different; it has different politics, different supply chains.

"I hope for us in Maui is that we can get one up and going within the next one to three years, and I'm hoping it's closer to one than three."

The School-Based Health Alliance's Fields, who was raised in Nicholas County and was active in health care delivery locally for about 20 years, said that New River "is very much a leader" in school-based health initiatives.

As systems with whom she now works across the country look to gain expanded access for children to school-based health, Fields said, "I always come back to the great job that is done here in West Virginia. That's why we have the delegation here today, so they can learn more about how we do school-based health and school-based health centers and hopefully find something that will work in their home and their area."

According to Kennedy, WVPCA is the leadership organization of the state's 33 federally-qualified health centers, such as New River Health. "We represent them, so we are partnering with the National School-Based Alliance to work with delegations that come to West Virginia."

The Mountain State is often "lifted up because of the excellence and the longevity that school-based health centers have had in the national realm," Kennedy added. "I brought (Maui) to New River because of the excellence in which they do the service for students.

"It's nice to lift up excellence within our state, and New River definitely provides excellence in their school-based health."

For more on New River Health, visit https://www.newriverhealthwv.com/.

Email: skeenan@register-herald.com or follow on Twitter @gb_scribe