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School Health Bulletin
January 21, 2010
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Student Advisory Council, Forest Grove High School
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Katu News featured the students at Forest Grove High School as Everyday Heroes on KATU channel 2 news. View the video
in which they tell about their experiences over three years while
working to generate support for a school-based health center, including
talking to legislators about the needs in their community.
As the Oregon School-Based Health Care Network builds this youth
leadership from year to year, your support is imperative. Nearly 140
youth and adults will convene at the Capitol on February 1 to kick off SBHC Awareness Month.
While rallying for SBHC support at the Capitol, the students will:
- Train each other and share their ideas for engaging their
communities in support of school-based health care with their peers,
parents and professionals
- Learn how to tell their stories and raise awareness about the need for accessible health care for children
- Create personal story videos and PSAs for distribution
- Help the Speaker of the House and Senate President kick off SBHC Awareness Month at a press conference
- Meet with their legislators
Your $40 will sponsor a student's activities and training.
Click here to show your support today using our secure website.
You are invited to share this email with your friends and family,
as well as your employer. We encourage both personal and corporate
contributions, which are tax deductible.
Paula Hester
Executive Director
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This has been an exciting and productive year for advancing access to quality health care.
Even with the declines in state revenues, thousands of job losses,
and uncertainty for the future of our economy, together we achieved so much:
57,000 children have access to a school-based health center
We expanded school-based health care to 11 more Oregon communities,
and planning for new centers is being conducted in more than 14 new communities.
We are keeping funding stable and increased it with another $1.38 million
in the last legislative session.
80,000 children will have access to insurance to pay for health care
Accessing services is critical to a child’s health and
paying for services is critical to the doors of the centers remaining open.
Federal Update
The Massachusetts senate election will make the process of passing a
final federal health care reform bill much more challenging and it is
unclear how the leadership will proceed. Both of the versions that had
passed in the House and Senate contained important sections for SBHCs
Here is an update from NASBHC regarding SBHC specific provsions:
- The authorization (federal grant program) of SBHCs provision is in both bills.
- The emergency (short-term) appropriations for SBHCs language ($200
million over 4 years) is in the Senate bill and the House has
informally agreed to accept it. We are working with staffers to enable
the money to be used for operations – we are not sure of our chances of
success in this endeavor.
- The reimbursement for SBHCs (Medicaid and CHIP) provision is in the House bill, and we believe the Senate will accept it.
- The cost-based reimbursement provision (a higher reimbursement
rate, similar to FQHCs) is in the House bill and we believe the Senate
will accept it.
We will keep you apprised regarding the health care reform process as the final phase unfolds.
You may view a side by side comparison of the House and Senate school-based health care provisions of the bill at on the Network website.
State Update
The state will begin a special session on February 1. With tight
budgets, we expect many services and organizations that directly and
indirectly support SBHCs in Oregon will face cuts.
What can you do? Please vote in favor of measures 66 & 67, and support SBHC Awareness Day at the Capitol as the special session opens on February 1.
We will continue to ask legislators to look beyond cuts to help balance our state budget.
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NASBHC Training Opportunities
In partnership with the DHS State Program Office, and Washington’s SBHC system, the Network was awarded a training and technical assistance grant from NASBHC.
The
purpose of this partnership is to disseminate the wealth of training
content developed by NASBHC directly to the SBHC field.
The
northwest regional partnership will host a free webinar overview of the
on-line training and technical assistance tools developed by NASBHC.
- WHEN: The week of March 8, 2010
- WHY: To become more familiar with the many capacity building resources available through NASBHC
- HOW: EMAIL jennifer.melo@osbhcn.org to be added to the registration list
Regional Training Opportunity:
Developing Partnerships Within Your School Community
This low-cost, full day training will be held in the McMinnville area of Yamhill County
on March 10th, 2010.
- Understand the key intersections between SBHCs and schools and how we can support each other
- Acquire and practice skills for developing meaningful partnerships and how these partnerships benefit you
- Learn abour tools, policies, resources and grant monies available to help support the work you do
- Develop an action plan for future partnership activities
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Community Online Resource Exchange
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Oregon Public Health Publishes Survey Results:
The Choking Game
Many Oregon eighth graders know about, even participate in this potentially fatal activity.
Oregon
Public Health officials want parents and healthcare providers to be
aware of a dangerous and potentially fatal activity in which many young
teens are engaging. According to the Oregon Healthy Teens Survey,
conducted every other year by Oregon Public Health, as many as 2,600
eighth graders in the state have participated in the "choking game,"
also called Pass-Out, Space Monkey, Flat Liner and Blackout.
The
survey also found that one in three eighth graders had heard of someone
participating in this activity and that 6 percent reported
participating themselves.
 Do you have news or announcements to share?
SBHC's activities to share in the School Health Bulletin
Paula Hester
Executive Director
503-813-6420
P.O. Box 12191, Portland, OR 97212
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