This article is one of a series of articles produced by Word in Black through support provided by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Word In Black is a collaborative of 10 Black-owned media outlets across the country.
By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
It is that time of year as families and students prepare for a new school year. Of course, one of the major concerns going into the new school year is preparing your child or children to begin the year with a clean bill of health.
Public Health Seattle-King County and Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic are providing a number of resources to help families prepare for the school year, including immunizations, vaccines, and mental health resources.
According to Terri Ameri, Medical Director of School Based & Community Health and Director of Clinical Operations at Seattle Children’s Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic (OBCC), Odessa Brown, which is a part of Seattle Children’s Hospital, will maintain three school-based Health Centers to provide families with comprehensive health services that are easily accessible. The health centers, located at Beacon Hill Elementary School, Lowell Elementary School and Garfield High School, will provide general health checkup, mental health services, back to school physicals, sports physicals and vaccinations. In addition, they will also host a number of community-based vaccine events throughout South Seattle and Southern King County.
Public Heath oversees 37 school-based health centers throughout King County provided by nine different partnered healthcare agencies to provide those direct services.
According to Ameri, going back to school is a big deal and even a time for celebration. However, she also warns that heading back to school can provoke anxiety, especially for children that are still suffering from not having adequate social time during the pandemic.
“It is important to start back on routines one to two weeks before school starts,” says Ameri. “In the summer we tend to relax bedtimes and some to the rules that are in place during the school year with screen time, video games, outside with the sun being out, all of the fun things, but its important to children back on a sleep schedule.”
The importance of overall health is essential to the success of students in the classroom as well, and general exams like vision and dental are very important.
Ameri also says that making sure that your child has been properly screened for possible dental and vision issues is also important as they head back to school.
“Vision always comes to my mind. If children can’t see adequately, they can lose concentration,” says Ameri. “Having a toothache can for a bad day for children. So really make sure your children get those eye exams as well as dental exams.”
Vaccines and immunization have long been recommended for the protection of children as soon as they start kindergarten and Public Health Seattle-King County continues to provide those services throughout the area.
“We know that overall immunizations for all of the recommended vaccinations including those that are required to enter schools in Washington state and those that are recommended really fell during the pandemic for variety of reasons, says Andie Lyons, who leads youth immunizations work for Public Health. “People couldn’t get into see doctors, they were isolating, life was just not proceeding as normal. We know that when it comes to a lot of vaccine preventable diseases the more people including kids that are vaccinated the less of chance, we have those diseases interrupting our lives.”
One of the major concerns and challenges that arose during the pandemic years was mental health and Public Health Seattle-King County has made significant strides and emphasis on providing resources to address the mental stress young people may experience as it relates to back-to-school anxiety.
According to Sara Rigel who oversees Public Health school-based health centers, many schools in the area have a “comprehensive primary medical care and behavioral health services for the students in the building and those nearby.”
“What that means is that is a full-service doctors’ offices for primary care students is available before, after and during the school day. Care like sports physicals, immunization, all aspects of primary care that you would expect,” says Rigel.
“In addition, the centers are fully staffed with mental health providers that provide various support for students, across concerns like social and emotional skill building to more comprehensive and regular therapeutic support for mental health concerns,” she added.
Public Health’s work in providing these centers has proven to be beneficial in how they aid parents, teachers and staff and of course students in making healthcare more accessible and convenient for all.
“We are really fortunate to have these clinics across King County,” says Rigel. “We know that a student’s health and well being is inextricably linked to their success as students and long term in life, so healthy students learn better and having health care available and accessible to them while they are at school really creates the opportunity for them to focus back on their learning.”
“This is a great benefit,” Rigel continued. “[School based health centers are instrumental] in reducing their time away from school convenience for families who may not have the opportunity to take time off from work to take them to the doctor’s office, helping teachers identify problems and concerns amongst students and teachers and school staff to address issues right on the spot.”
