Following the same reasoning of a famous bank robber, Jim Martin says you put health care centers in schools “because that’s where the kids are.”
Martin, director of the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, and other officials announced this morning that a private foundation has donated another $1 million to the state’s school-based health centers, which now total 40 across the state.
The gift by the Colorado Trust Inc. will boost a struggling program to put doctors and nurses into schools, particularly low-income and rural schools where many of the state’s 180,000 children who don’t have health insurance can be found.
“It’s hard to find physicians and nurses in some parts of the state,” Martin said. “So we’re putting the primary-care and preventive-care programs right into the schools.”
Martin said four new school-based health centers will open this year in Durango, Montrose, Lamar and Basalt. In Denver, six high schools and six middle schools have their own health centers, including Lake Middle School, where officials gathered this morning to announce the $1 million grant.
“Kids do better when they have a nurse or a doctor they know and trust,” said Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien, the state’s champion for children. “The longer they have a health center, the more it becomes a safe place for them. This is particularly true for mental health concerns, which are just as important as health care needs.”
Lake Middle School principal Hans Kayser said the well-equipped center, which has five health care workers, also takes care of the neighborhood’s children, regardless of whether they attend Lake.
Lake Middle School is at West 18th Avenue and Lowell Boulevard, on the north shore of Sloan’s Lake and only a few blocks from St. Anthony Hospital, which supplies some of the health care workers.
“We want the school to become the center for the community,” Kayser said.
The state’s 40 school-based health centers operate on a budget of $1.2 million, which is augmented by in-kind contributions from Denver Public Schools, Denver Health Medical Center, St. Anthony and other hospitals, as well as private donations.
“A lot of these centers have been limping along without the resources they need,” said Bruce Guernsey, director of the school-based program. “This grant is a huge boost.
“These centers provide a lot more than the traditional school nurse is able. They give mental-health counseling, as well as physical health care, for things like asthma, diabetes. They also provide dental screenings and preventive care.”
Sabine Kortals, spokeswoman for Colorado Trust, said the trust is a nonprofit foundation that was endowed in 1985 from the proceeds of the sale of St. Luke’s Hospital.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
