School-based health centers and the primary care physician: an opportunity for collaborative care.
Located throughout the country, SBHCs are an important resource for primary care physicians caring for children and adolescents. It is beneficial for primary care physicians to become familiar with school-based resources in their community. Information about SBHCs nationwide is available from the NASBHC [4,16] and The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools [3,7,12,15]. Partnering with SBHCs can have important benefits for your practice, including improved continuity of care, management of chronic dis-eases like asthma, opportunities for group and multidisciplinary interventions for overweight children, and access to SBHC mental health services. Specializing in adolescent issues, with the advantage of proximity, SBHC providers can be an invaluable asset in managing and helping to monitor your patients, especially when other community resources are limited or services are difficult to access. In our own centers, we are currently exploring ways to simplify ongoing routine communication with primary care providers. Consider discussing this opportunity for collaborative services with your patients and contacting your local SBHC to discuss how you would like to communicate and work together.
Weinstein
Jamie
J
Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, L2003 Womens, PO Box 0239, Ann Arbor, 48109-2687, USA. jamiesu@med.umich.edu
D000293:Adolescent; D000295:Adolescent Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D001249:Asthma / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011322:Primary Prevention / Q000379:methods*; D012572:School Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*