Maryland Assembly on School-Based Health Care
Registration is now open for the 7th Annual Johns Hopkins University Leadership Education in Adolescent Health Conference. This years conference is on Adolescent Health Disparities with a focus on substance use and abuse. It promises to be an interesting and informative day of focusing on the impacts of substance use and abuse on young people. School Health Professionals are encouraged to join in.
For registration information click here.
Choptank Community Health System, in conjunction with the Caroline County Board of Education, provides medical and dental services to nine School Based Health Centers (SBHCs) for students and staff. One the busiest and most culturally diverse sites is located at the Greensboro Elementary School in Greensboro, Maryland. The site is in a rural area of Caroline County with a high population of Hispanic residents.
This SBHC staffs a physician’s assistant three days a week that provides medical services – including treatment for minor injuries, illnesses, health education, diagnostic testing and treatment. The bilingual support staff person provides administrative and language services. The SBHC also provides dental services during one period of the school year at the site. The dental team provides oral health screenings, fluoride varnish, sealants and cleanings.
There were 859 students and staff enrolled during the 2013-2014 school year, a 73% enrollment rate, and the SBHC saw 2184 visits from 463 of the enrollees.
In today’s world, eating right and being healthy is a conscious choice, but often for students they face the dilemma of wanting the goodness of a true home cooked meal without sacrificing too many calories or nutritional value. This was the goal of Northwood High School’s Food Day event with the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). CSPI’s Fourth Annual Food Day took place on October 24th with events occurring all over the country. Food Day is movement started by CSPI to educate and advocate for a change to the American food system and to increase education and advocacy for healthy eating. Food Day promotes education on healthy eating such as conducting cooking classes and planting a school garden and advocacy efforts such as encouraging local officials to adopt better local food policies.
To commemorate Food Day, Northwood High School’s SBHC had students from a variety of ethnic backgrounds submit some of their favorite recipes. The recipes were then sent over to CSPI’s head chef, Kate Sherwood. Chef Kate and her team reworked the recipes to be healthier by taking out or substituting fatty ingredients (using chicken instead of red meat), modifying how the meal is cooked (pan frying instead of deep frying), and/or increasing the nutritional value of dish (adding additional vegetables, like cauliflower to macaroni and cheese). Recipes were submitted from all over the world: Bangladesh, Guinea, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, and Bolivia. To test out these new recipes, on Friday October 31st participating students took a field trip from Northwood High in Silver Spring, MD to CSPI headquarters in Washington, DC to cook with Chef Kate and others from CSPI. The morning was full of conversation on cooking techniques, safety in the kitchen, and how to make your meals healthier when at home. Students talked about the biggest take away from the experience being that you don’t always have to follow the recipes and you can always change it to make it healthier. After the recipes were prepared and cooked, everyone sat down to taste all the wonderful dishes. The photo album belows shows the students at work, preparation of meals, and the final product.
Northwood High’s Food Day is made possible by Hallways to Health and Catholic University’s School of Nursing.
For more information on CSPI visit their website