TEEN HEALTH CENTER INC
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Mission Statement
The Teen Health Center, Inc. strengthens the health and well being of Galveston's youth through easily accessible, school-based care.
About This Cause
The Teen Health Center, Inc. operates clinics inside five public schools in Galveston. Providing medical and mental health care in schools helps eliminate the most common barriers families face when seeking care for their children. Challenges families face include low income, a lack of insurance, transportation, difficulty missing work, and missed instructional time. Teen Health removes these barriers to care by providing high-quality, free medical and mental health care where students already are every day. The number one predictor of academic success is attendance. Teen Health clinics help keep kids healthy, in class, and ready to learn. Many Galveston families do not have sufficient financial resources for medical care. They may be uninsured, underinsured, or unable to afford co-pays and deductibles. A family whose child receives care at Teen Health is not billed for services, nor are they required to have insurance or Medicaid. All services are paid for by donations and grants. Reliable transportation is often another challenge for families. It can be very difficult to get to and from a doctor’s or therapist’s office on public transportation or by asking for rides from friends. It is much easier to delay preventive or other care that is not urgent. Clinics housed inside schools allow students to receive preventive and primary care where they already are every day. Parents’ work schedules often conflict with taking their children to the doctor. Parents with hourly jobs are not paid when they are not working, and some cannot afford to lose hours. Others fear getting in trouble or losing their job for requesting time off. Parents whose children need repeat appointments, such as weekly meetings with a therapist, find it particularly difficult to juggle appointments with a work schedule. However, with parental consent, a child may be treated at Teen Health without a parent present. Students who seek medical or mental health care often leave school for several hours, sometimes not returning for the rest of the day. This leads to hours of missed instruction and lowered attendance rates in the district. Students whose appointments are at Teen Health are pulled from electives and can be back to class in fifteen minutes without being marked absent. Galveston residents ages birth through 21 years old may receive diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses, immunizations, well-child exams, well-woman exams, treatment of minor injuries, and participation physicals. Galveston school staff and students can be Covid tested and all Galveston residents who meet CDC criteria can receive Covid-19 vaccines. Some of the mental health concerns we treat include anxiety, depression, substance abuse, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct problems, stress-related reactions, and bipolar disorder. Teen Health also partners closely with the district and others to deliver a social and emotional learning program that includes a universal curriculum for all students and a screening system to provide additional services to children who are identified as having moderate or severe relationship skill deficiencies.