Lynn super makes health case on Beacon Hill

BOSTON – Superintendent of Schools Catherine Latham became emotional even before she took to the podium as one of 13 featured speakers during a School-Based Health Center Briefing at the State House.”It’s hard for me to talk about this,” she told a crowd of approximately 100 people gathered for the event.Latham said it is hard for students to concentrate when their ear, teeth or throat hurt.”Or when you’re called worthless by a family member before you leave for school in the morning, or you’re beaten or abused,” she said, her voice breaking.When Nancy Carpenter, executive director for the Massachusetts Association for School-Based Health Care, handed her a tissue she waved it off, stating, “Oh, it’s just allergies,” causing a ripple of laughter to move across the hall. The exchange was much the way the entire briefing went with poignant stories followed by small tension breaking jokes followed by facts regarding the need for and the success of school-based health clinics.About 20 nurse practitioners, clinic office managers, behavioral health providers and at least one community health worker from Lynn traveled to the State House to support Latham and impress upon the legislators how important centers are.”I truly believe in every second of us being in the schools,” said Lynn Community Health Worker Sue Lunden. “I went to Lynn English and I wish there had been one for me. My daughters went to Lynn English and I wish there had been one for them.”Lunden said first and foremost the centers provide quality health care for every student in their given school free of charge. Some centers also treat siblings. They also provide a safe haven for students who feel they have nowhere else to go.”There is always someone available to talk whether it’s stress over a relationship or that they haven’t eaten because they’re homeless.”Lynn has seven school-based health clinics, one in each high school, two middle schools and two, soon to be three, elementary schools.”That’s unique,” said former Executive Director of the Lynn School-Based Health Clinics, Donna Coe, who was also at the briefing. “Most that have them have them only in the high school.”Coe started the Lynn school-based health centers 21 years ago, she is now the primary care provider for Lynn Vocational Technical Institute.”The concept of the school-based health center is the same mission as the school, healthy kids are successful kids,” she said. “If they’re not healthy both physically and emotionally they won’t be able to have academic success.”According to Carpenter there were 40,000 visits to school-based health centers across the state in the last year.In her speech Latham said they tried to go a strictly academic route and it worked for a while.”We were doing well and we were happy,” she said. “But it’s hard to stay focused on academics when you see what other stuff students have going on separate from academics.”Latham said school nurses are wonderful but they can’t write prescriptions, they don’t work with health insurance companies and they’re not trained to work with behavioral issues. The health centers do all that and more, and they are “quietly effective,” she said.According to Carpenter, centers are funded in a myriad of ways. The state has an appropriation for school health services and a portion of that is used to fund the clinics, she said.”Today we’re here to advocate that at the very least that is level funded,” she said. “And there are grants and lots of other ways to find funding. Health care center directors are very savvy.”Carpenter also urged clinic directors to present annual reports to superintendents and school committees to show the dollar value of keeping kids healthy.”We have not focused on this enough,” she said.State Sen. Richard Moore, chairman of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, echoed Carpenter.”We need to spread the word, tell members of the House, Senate and anyone else you can grab, and make sure they understand the importance and t