Program offers holistic health services at area schools

Updated 10:00 AM January 24, 2005

Program offers holistic health services at area schools

By Colleen Newvine
News Service

In the old days, a nurse at school meant someone to apply a bandage to a boo-boo. Today, through a collaborative effort led by U-M, health care professionals in regional public schools provide physical exams, handle sick visits, offer counseling on nutrition or asthma, and provide a variety of other services.

The Regional Alliance for Healthy Schools (RAHS) runs the school-based health centers staffed by nurse practitioners, social workers and other health care providers at several Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti elementary and secondary schools. The RAHS supplements school nurses.

While the ranks of school nurses are dwindling nationally, RAHS is part of an effort to provide something like a full-service medical care clinic inside schools, with nurse practitioners, social workers and doctors all offering care on site. Ann Arbor started its first clinic in 1996. The program expanded to include Ypsilanti, which opened its first school clinic in 2000.

"We don't function as the school nurse—we work collaboratively but our roles are very different," says Jennifer Salerno, a nurse practitioner who serves as RAHS coordinator. "We are not here to just triage injury and sickness but to provide the full range of services you might get at your health care clinic and to promote healthy behaviors."

In 2003-04 RAHS conducted more than 2,000 health visits, 700 counseling sessions and 400 health education visits. It operates on-site facilities at Scarlett Middle Schools and Stone High School in Ann Arbor, and East Middle School in Ypsilanti, and provides outreach services to students at Bryant, Carpenter, Mitchell and Pittsfield elementary schools in Ann Arbor. The centers in the Ann Arbor schools are known by the name HealthPlace 101.

RAHS is funded by the U-M Health System, the Michigan Department of Education, the U-M School of Nursing, and the Medical School departments of family medicine and pediatrics. It also receives funding from a variety of other sources, including Pfizer and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation as part of its $16.3 million, five-year national project to support school-based health care.

RAHS services include asthma education, programs to combat obesity and substance abuse prevention.

According to the RAHS 2003-04 annual report:

• Asthmatic students had a decrease in emergency or urgent care visits—three days a year fewer one year after completing the RAHS Comprehensive Asthma Program, and seven days a year after two years.

• RAHS staff had more than 1,000 visits at the three schools for acute and chronic illness, including sprains, abdominal pain and upper respiratory infection. More than 90 percent of the students went back to class after their visits, reducing the time away from school necessary to get medical care

• RAHS immunized 166 students at Scarlett, 100 at East and 42 at Stone, including initial and booster shots. As of June 2004, 99 percent of students at Scarlett were completely up to date on needed immunizations

• 37 students at Scarlett and 48 students at East received dental screenings and preventive dental care, and a total of 32 students had dental problems identified during the screenings

• University students participating in RAHS delivered a total of about 450 hours of physical or mental health services and prevention education in classrooms. Students come from U-M pediatrics and nursing, and Eastern Michigan University public health programs.

• RAHS assisted more than 100 middle school students with psychosocial needs, including grief and loss, and conflict between parents and children.

Salerno says RAHS has found that needs differ between high schools and elementary. Parents are more likely to be in regular contact with a pediatrician for their elementary-aged children than for teens, she said.

"The older students typically do not access health care as much, for a variety of reasons. By bringing health care closer to them, we hope to make it easier for them to benefit from our services," Salerno says.

Program offers holistic health services at area schools

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