What is a SBHC?

SBHCs were initiated to help children achieve by increasing access to health and behavioral health services and bringing needed services to where children spend most of their time: schools. Recently, the concept has been more widely supported, with the number of SBHCs nationwide growing from 50 to 1500 in the past 20 years. Over the past decade, SBHCs have become a key component of the health care delivery system for medically underserved children in Louisiana. Pre-Katrina, there were 55 SBHCs statewide that provided 139,172 primary care visits and behavioral health visits in 2005. Office of Public Health (OPH) provides ongoing funding to all but 4 of the currently operating SBHCs in the State.

A SBHC is meant to complement a school nurse where one exists since school nurses are often limited in the scope of care they can give students. In contrast, a SBHC is staffed with a part-time physician, a nurse practitioner, a registered nurse, a social worker, and a data coordinator. As such, the center is able to provide comprehensive health services to students. SBHCs have become valuable to the school environment by being able to provide treatment for minor illness and injury to ensure students are capable to function in classrooms, comprehensive physicals for extracurricular activities, behavioral health counseling for troubled students, treatments for students with chronic or acute diseases to maximize classroom time, required vaccines for college, and other beneficial services to enhance the learning environment of a school.

In order to adequately staff a SBHC, schools often partner with larger medical entities that will serve as a medical sponsor for the facility. In New Orleans, historic sponsors have included LSUHSC, the City of New Orleans, and Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans. In these instances, schools will have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to allow medical sponsors to be on their campus. In some cases, such as the Jefferson Parish School Board, the school board actually serves as the medical sponsor and takes responsibility for hiring clinical staff and managing clinical operations.

In addition to funding provided by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, state and local funding is also provided by:

• Adolescent School Health Initiative, Louisiana Office of Public Health
• Methodist Health System Foundation, Inc.
• Baptist Community Ministries
• City of New Orleans Health Department
• New Orleans Parish school
• LSU Health Science Center, Department of Pediatrics
• Louisiana Public Health Institute
• Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans
• Metropolitan Human Services Authority
• Jefferson Parish School
• Orleans Parish School Board
• St. Bernard Parish Schools