PHOTOS BY JASON E. KAPLAN suffering, it’s not far from what advocates describe. “We work with school districts that are desperate for help with youth mental health,” says Maureen Hinman, executive director of the Oregon School-Based Health Alliance. “It’s impacting staff. We have teachers who are scared of the kids.” Clearly, this is a national phenomenon. But Oregon’s problem is particularly acute. The state has a dismal record for absenteeism, the fourth highest in the nation, and ranks dead last in the country for mental-illness prevalence and access to care. So why doesn’t Oregon invest more school-based health clinics? DUFUR’S NEW FACILITY brings the number of Oregon’s school-based health clinics to 89, meaning about 25% of school districts have one, according to Hinman. “That percentage may go up a bit now that Dufur’s clinic is online,” she says. But securing a school-based health clinic takes a lot of work and coordination. Dufur’s resource became a reality after years of assessing needs, building community trust and finding funds. Grants came from the Oregon Health Authority, various foundations and a $50,000 chunk from the deep pockets of Google, which operates a data center nearby. “The people in Dufur were grant-writing machines,” remembers Kristen Nicolescu, medical provider and physician assistant for One Community Health. (One Community Health will provide the staffing and supplies for the clinic.) So what will all of this work yield? Not intended to replace primary care, the clinic will offer vital supplemental services, designed to “increase seat time for students while keeping them focused and engaged,” according to Hinman. These services include providing sports physicals; offering preventive care; and diagnosing and treating illnesses and injuries like strep throat, sprained ankles, and ear infections. The clinic will be equipped with a small pharmacy and can administer free vaccines. That’s good news considering Oregon has the second highest nonmedical exemption rate for vaccines in the country at 9%. Dufur School’s new health clinic is set to open in August. Dufur school nurse Kamala Malcolm was the driving force behind creating the new facility. 21
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