PORTLAND – High school students urged gubernatorial candidates Tuesday to maintain and possibly increase state funding for 27 school-based health centers in 17 Maine districts.

Members of the student health center outreach teams at Deering and Portland high schools hosted a breakfast for gubernatorial candidates in the State of Maine Room at City Hall and provided a tour of the health center at Portland High.

Students said the health centers are a cost-effective, convenient way to provide health care to students. Services range from physical exams and dental cleanings to mental health counseling and birth control for sexually active students.

“We want more school health centers,” said Mandi Arnott, a Deering High senior.

Democratic candidates Pat McGowan, Libby Mitchell, John Richardson and Steve Rowe attended the breakfast, along with Republican candidate Peter Mills and Dr. Melanie Cutler, wife of independent candidate Eliot Cutler.

Nearly 14,300 students — about 7.5 percent of Maine’s public and private school population in kindergarten through high school — have access to school-based health centers, according to data provided by the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine.

About 94 percent of all visits to Maine’s school-based health centers last year were covered by public or private insurance. About half of those visits were made by students covered by MaineCare, a publicly funded health insurance option for low-income people.

Students and others at Tuesday’s breakfast said the centers help to reduce sick days, emergency room visits and hospital stays, as well as tobacco and marijuana use.

They described the centers as important community resources that should have dependable state funding.

Last year, the operating budgets of 20 school-based health centers were funded partially by the state, while the others were privately funded, according to the Muskie school.

This year, 18 centers are getting state funding.

After the breakfast, McGowan said he was impressed with the student outreach teams and the potential for peer-to-peer health education initiatives stemming from school-based health centers.

“There should be more of them,” McGowan said. “I’d like to learn more about it.”

Mitchell said she believes that all Maine students should have access to school-based health centers. “It’s a perfect example of something that works but isn’t available to all Maine students,” she said.

Richardson said he was especially impressed with the centers’ potential to reduce costs through preventive health care and educational outreach, including anti-smoking and alcohol prevention campaigns.

“It makes perfect sense,” he said. “This would be a high priority for a Richardson administration.”

Rowe said he’s an advocate for providing a stable funding source for school-based health centers.

“The centers provide health services for many students who might not otherwise have access to comprehensive health care,” he said.

“And having healthy citizens is critical to having a healthy economy.”

Mills said he has been a fan of school-based health centers for years.

“You don’t have to persuade me of their value,” he said, noting that some companies are offering health care services in the workplace because it reduces employees’ time off the job for illness or medical appointments.

Cutler, who is a child psychiatrist, said the centers would factor into her husband’s plan to review how health care is delivered across Maine.

She said the centers’ approach jibes with her husband’s desire to address health care issues before they become health care problems.

Several students representing the health center at Lewiston High School also attended the breakfast.

Members of the student health center outreach teams at Deering and Portland high schools hosted a breakfast for gubernatorial candidates in the State of Maine Room at City Hall and provided a tour of the health center at Portland High.

Democratic candidates Pat McGowan, Libby Mitchell, John Richardson and Steve Rowe attended the breakfast, along with Republican candidate Peter Mills and Dr. Melanie Cutler, wife of independent candidate Eliot Cutler.

Students said the health centers are a cost-effective, convenient way to provide health care to students. Services range from physical exams and dental cleanings to mental health counseling and birth control for sexually active students.

“We want more school health centers,” said Mandi Arnott, a Deering High senior.

About 94 percent of all visits to Maine’s school-based health centers last year were covered by public or private insurance. About half of all visits were made by students covered by MaineCare, a publicly funded health insurance option for low-income people.

Several students representing the health center at Lewiston High School also attended the breakfast.

NASBHC March 2010 Newsletter

Maranacook Students Will Unveil Video Asking Lawmakers to Help Prevent Youth Smoking

Members of the Maranacook Student Health Center Advisory Committee want lawmakers to take action on youth smoking, starting by increasing Maine’s tobacco taxes right away.

On Tuesday, March 23rd, students from the Committee will travel to the State House to unveil their new video calling on lawmakers to raise the tax on cigarettes in order to help prevent youth smoking, and equalize the tax on other tobacco products to keep kids from finding cheaper alternatives, like “little cigars” and chewing tobacco.

Parents and school administrators will also be in attendance. They will express their concern for Maine’s rising smoking rates and the Legislature’s lack of action in raising the price of tobacco products, despite the proven link between higher prices and reduced youth smoking.

WHAT: Press Conference Calling for a Tobacco Tax Increase

WHEN: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 10:30am

WHERE: Taxation Committee Room #127, State House, Augusta

WHO: Chuck Hays, Maranacook High School student
Justin Greeley, Maranacook High School student
Emily Allen, Maranacook High School student
Dr. John Barnes, Maranacook parent and Readfield physician
Rich Abramson, Superintendent of Maranacook Area Schools

CONTACT: Carol Kelly (207) 210-0789

Part I: What have we learned from the planning process?

Part II: Principles for an ideal model of primary care / behavioral health integration for school-based health centers

Part III: Recommended steps to an integrated school-based health centers practice

ME Assembly Implementation Plan_Integration

Prepared by:
ROBERT P. WEINGARTEN
CONSULTING FOR CREATIVE OPTIONS

Cindy Dolben RN
Noble Health Center
388 Somersworth Rd
North Berwick, Maine 03906
Phone 207-676-2175
Fax 207-676-2204
cdolben@sad60.k12.me.us

“You cannot educate a child who is not healthy, and you cannot be healthy if you are not educated.”

Hello every one let me start by introducing who we are. We are the young people, the next generation of leaders. We are the ones who will bring harmony, equality, farness, and justice by learning from one another and by teaching one another. We are the leaders of tomorrow and the ones who will lead the way for the ones younger then us. We are the generation of change. We are youth that are trying to make both our community and the world a better place by tackling one issue at a time.

We are a group that is called “What’s Next?” from Portland High School and we are working with the Portland High Health Center to educate teens about health issues by doing peer to peer projects. The reason why we got started was because In the year 2008 about 3 or 4 students where stunned at the rate of teen pregnancies in our school and community so they came together to discuss this issue and to find a way to prevent and to educate. With every group meeting that was held by these students a room was filled with passion and even more interest in all that we could accomplished. From that we planned our first presentation which got Portland high students asking “what next?” will we present. That’s where our club name “What’s Next?” came from. With the help of Portland High School’s health center and our adviser Phyl Rubinstein we continued these presentations and later on we did an HIV/AIDS awareness day which was so successful that we actually ran out of testing tools and the health center had to order more immediately.

The reason why this group and what we do is so important is because it is effective in raising awareness and getting the youths attention* we realized that peer to peer projects and a twist of creativity made people interested in what we had to say; it made people listening and it made many think about their own lives and how they can keep themselves safe. Our presentations helped many students realize that there are places and resources available to them in their communities and better yet their school. This group is important because by it we inspire, prevent, and most importantly educate.

Our health center offers just about every thing the doctors office offers, such as teeth cleaning, birth control, shots, physicals, and we even have a social worker who takes care of mental health needs. We know through research that school based health centers keeps students in school and decreases absenteeism; not only that, but we also Provide health care for student who mights not have it.

If there is no funding to keep the health center open, then like I said before, there may be students that would be left without a school health center that offered many of the same things the doctors office did. If we didn’t have funding then we would be left with out a supervisor to coordinate our club. If we are left without funding, then we cant get creative with much of our projects. Which mean it could be harder to bring in speakers to come and talk to our students. If we didn’t have funding then it would be difficult to continue doing all that we are working on right now.

What we are doing is one step closer to a better world* we are preventing many students from engaging in risky behaviors and through it I know we are changing at least a handfull of students with each project presented. We are Portland high school students and we would like to say thank you for listening.

Submitted by:
Cindy Dolben, RN
School Health Center Coordinator

Please find attached a document outlining the lengthy process that was taken to expand services offered in the Noble Health Center. We hope this will help other health centers considering expanding their services. Patricia Buck-Welton, Proj. Coordinator, Maine Assembly

Microsoft Word – Noble Health Center Service Expansion Plan

Submitted by:
Anne Barker, FNP