Grant giving D-49 its first school-based clinic

Falcon Elementary School will become home to a new school-based health center, and two existing centers in other school districts will beef up operations thanks to a $500,000 grant awarded Thursday to Peak Vista Community Health Centers.

Peak Vista will buy new equipment for the Entrada School-based Health Center in Harrison School District 2, and expand the Cripple Creek-Victor Mountain Health Center at Cresson Elementary School through the grant, which was awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration.

The idea behind school-based health centers is to give children better access to primary care services, improve their well-being and reduce unneeded visits to emergency rooms. The centers target uninsured or underinsured children, and those who have no other source of care or few medical resources nearby.

“With two of these projects located in rural communities, this will be especially beneficial because geographic and transportation barriers can seem overwhelming when combined with other access barriers,” Peak Vista CEO and president Pam McManus said in a news release.

The school-based clinic at Falcon Elementary is the first of its kind in Falcon School District 49, and district spokeswoman Stephanie Meredith said it will fill a gap in care for its students.

“There really is a need in that rural area around the school,” she said. “It’s hard for our families to access dental and health care.”

Nationally, the Health Resources and Service Administration awarded about $95 million in grants to 278 programs that serve about 790,000 children in the United States. The grants will enable another 440,000 children to be served, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said.

The grant money was made available through a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to build, renovate and equip school-based health centers. In May, the House voted to defund the next round of grants; the Senate has not yet considered the legislation.

Supporters of the program say the clinics have proven to improve students’ health, increase student achievement, cut down on  absenteeism and discipline problems and reduce emergency room visits.