Bringing Health Care to the Classroom

By Meg Reid, Undergraduate Research Fellow, February 9, 2012 at 8:30 am

Twenty-three percent (23.1%) of Minnesota’s school-age children are obese. So far, we’ve covered the big two program areas to prevent childhood weight gain and obesity in schools – nutrition and physical activity. But how can we help the kids who are currently facing weight problems?

Here’s one answer: School-based health clinics (SBHCs). Right now, 2,000 clinics nationwide are housed in public schools, providing care to 1.7 million students who may or may not have health insurance. Eighteen of these clinics are in Minnesota schools.

School-based health clinics come with lots of advantages. They provide easy access to health care for students who might not otherwise be able to get to the doctor’s office.  Kids miss less class time if they visit the in-school clinic than if they have to travel to a community clinic. SBHCs provide comprehensive health services, from physicals to immunizations to mental health services, and are often staffed by a wide variety of practitioners to serve all of a child’s needs. The clinics already provide many benefits to students – why not also make them the center of care for overweight and obese children?

Because they’re housed in the schools themselves, school-based clinics can more easily identify and target students who are overweight or obese. This is important because obese children aged 10 to 13 are 80% more likely to become obese adults. SBHCs already have a variety of health resources at their disposal, so they’re in a great position to address weight and obesity issues in childhood  from a comprehensive standpoint. Clinics can address not only nutrition and physical activity but also medical issues like type II diabetes and emotional risk factors such as depression and stress.

Clinics in St. Paul are already tackling childhood obesity. Through a program called Fit Team for Kids, overweight and obese students are given medical, physical fitness, and nutritional evaluations and are then set them up with nutrition and fitness plans. Over the 2009-2010 school year, one third of students involved in the program stabilized their weight, and one third lost weight.

We need to devote more resources to the operation of these clinics.  Money is often an issue because the clinics provide care to students with and without health insurance. As a part of the Affordable Care Act, $200 million dollars are going to support SBHC programming. Some of this funding is already going to clinics in Minnesota schools. But we can do more to expand school-based clinics, especially outside of the Twin Cities where most of the clinics are currently located.

School-based health clinics already provide care for thousands of Minnesota students. They can be the helping hand students need on the path to weight control.
 

Posted in Health Care | Related Topics: Nutrition  Children's Health