According to the Florida
Health Insurance Study by the Agency for Health Care
Administration in 2000, approximately 111,000 children
in Miami-Dade County are uninsured, while many others
are likely to have poor access to health services.
School-based health is arguably one of the best ways
to offer convenient, affordable, quality care to students
in Miami-Dade County.
Local and national research tells us
that school-based health programs are an effective
way to increase access
to health care. It is even more beneficial when the
whole family can receive health care at these clinics.
This research confirms what community members have
been telling us for years: that providing access to
health care in people’s neighborhoods is vital
to improving their health. Problems such as lack of
transportation, taking time off from work, children
missing class time and lack of trust would be reduced
for families who could get health care in their own
neighborhoods.
We
know that just opening a new clinic does not mean
more people have access to health care. We know that
different barriers exist for different people, but
the strengths of school-based health programs cannot
be overlooked. These programs are:
- Community-based
- Geographically accessible
- Usually
seen as a “safe place” to
access services
- Available to provide health care access to entire
families
Most of the existing school based health
centers have to fight for funding just to keep their
doors open.
To make matters worse, the Miami
Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) and the Miami
Dade County Health Department’s
(MDCHD) School Health Services do not have the money
they need to provide the oversight for these programs.
Currently, the state of Florida does not provide enough
funding to have a nurse in every school, even though
school-based health programs allow for greater classroom
return (students returning to the classroom instead
of being sent home sick). When students stay at school,
the school keeps the funding it expected for the year.
In May 2002, Community Voices Miami
convened a group to discuss these issues regarding
school-based health
care and develop a plan to advocate for more funding.
The group used the action step ‘to increase school
based health centers’ in Community Voices Miami’s
Miami Action Plan (MAP) for
Access to Health Care (page
18) as a guide. Community Voices Miami organizes meetings
and provides support for this group,
which is now called the Miami Coalition for
School-Based Health (MCSBH). The goal of the Coalition is to increase
access to high quality health care for underserved
students. With a planning grant from the Health Foundation
of South Florida the MCSBH is improving quality assurance
measures at full service schools and outlining what
services are provided and by whom at all school-based
health centers. The Coalition is also developing a
plan to implement standards of certification for school
based health centers and school linked centers to strengthen
their credibility and sustainability. Other states
have used this process to solidify the placement of
school based health centers within the broader health
care community (some states even use certification
to link centers to funding). Florida does not have
a specific line item appropriation for school based
health centers, but classification of school based
health centers could help lead us there.
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