Healthy Schools From Within

By Eliza Hallabeck

The Connecticut Association of School-Based Health Centers has had its stethoscopes in the Danbury school district since 1994, and in January, the group, which provides health care for students on school grounds, will be expanding its practices to include some dental care along with the regularly practiced health care procedures.

“It’s schoolwide type prevention that we do,” said Newtown resident Melanie Bonjour, who is the coordinator of three school-based health centers in Danbury.

The Connecticut Association of School-Based Health Centers (CASBHC) was established in 1994, and it received its 501(c)(3) nonprofit designation in 1996, according to the group.

Danbury has three school-based health centers. The one in Danbury High School was opened in 1994, and the other two are in Broadview Middle School and Rodgers Park Middle School.

According to Ms Bonjour, funding for the centers is received from the state’s Department of Public Health, but each community with school-based health centers is “challenged” to find additional funding.

The centers are comprehensive primary health care facilities licensed as outpatient clinics or as hospital satellites, according to CASBHC. The centers are on school property and provide health services to students in prekindergarten classes through the twelfth grade.

“Our motto in Connecticut is healthy students make better learners,” said Ms Bonjour.

She said the health centers’ presence in schools help to remove barriers preventing students from getting health care, like transportation or funding.

“It also gives the clinicians the ability to track down the students to follow up,” said Ms Bonjour.

The clinics are in the schools, Ms Bonjour said, not to work against the nurse stations, but to provide the next level of care.

“It’s like bringing the doctor’s office into the school,” said Ms Bonjour.

Each of the clinics in Danbury are staffed by roughly three people, according to Ms Bonjour.

When confronted with more serious issues, Ms Bonjour said they try to refer the patients to other health care providers, but for the most part, “We do pretty much everything.”

The centers do write prescriptions when necessary.

“In January we will be introducing some dental work as well,” said Ms Bonjour. She added that a dental hygienist will be visiting the three schools for four and a half hours a week.

Ms Bonjour said she has been working for the state’s Department of Public Health for 28 years, and she took part in helping to write the original grant for one of the local school-based health centers. She said there was a gap in the need for age appropriate public health care.

“And we established money for the first health care center,” said Ms Bonjour. “The community was very supportive.”

According to CASBHC, the health care centers are staffed by multidisciplinary teams of pediatric and adolescent health specialists.

Since the beginning of the school-based health centers, Ms Bonjour said they have grown through many different routes.

“They are very successful programs,” said Ms Bonjour, “that are proving a need.”

The city of Danbury runs the health care centers in the schools, because the state allows each community with school-based health care centers to decide who runs them.

Through fundraising, Ms Bonjour said, the school-based health centers raise the funds that can not be funded from the state level.