PSBHA Holds Planning Retreat

At the end of April, the Pennsylvania School-Based Health Alliance (PSBHA) held a planning retreat. For the first time, school-based health center operators from across the state participated in the discussion to celebrate wins, share best practices and prepare for the future. Some highlights included discussion about standing up and populating the data hub in the first six months of the Health Equity Grant (recent data snapshot below), 90% of SBHC operators are doing screening and education around asthma (one of the top 2 reasons for SBHC visits) and learning all the ways operators used the health Equity Grant awarded 2 years ago.

As you may recall, the $2.85 million Health Equity Grant was geared towards expanding mental health services (the other top reason why students visit SBHCs). Since many SBHCs already offered mental health screenings and services, the extra funding that would normally be spent for mental health could now be used as the SBHC operator saw fit. What happened was exactly what we envisioned. For example, Family First in York was able to expand services from one to three days for students. In Lancaster, a behavioral health consultant was hired to create a calming room in the library.

PSBHA Website

We recently refreshed our website to reflect the organization’s growth and activity. Let us know if there are other resources you would like to see added. Please check out everything we are doing.

PSBHA Needs You as a Member

As you know, PSBHA is a membership driven organization and we need to increase our budget from memberships  Is membership worth it? Absolutely! We are immensely proud that the PSBHA has had an oversized impact relative to our history, size and capacity. Operated completely by volunteer staff until 2022, we have made a number of significant gains in expanding the reach and impact of school-based health centers (SBHCs) across Pennsylvania. Specifically, we’ve accomplished the following:

• Created a true community, collaboration, and strategy among all SBHCs in the state;

• Built a support base that we can call on to support our advocacy and awareness raising efforts via newsletters, and an annual report to inform and engage supporters of SBHCs;

• Collaborated with a number of allies to produce a number of joint statements that serve to advance education and health equity including with the PA Association of School Nurses and Nurse Practitioners and the PA Coalition of Nurse Practitioners;

• Advocated policy changes with PA Department of Human Services on several strong wins including the requirement that Medicaid managed care organizations must contract with SBHCs;

• Launched the SBHC Data Hub, which is a portal and system for reporting and evaluation enabling an annual SBHC Data Snapshot of utilization, the first of its kind in PA history;

• And perhaps most significantly, secured a $2.85 million grant from the PA Senate for SBHC mental health screening and care in all 30 SBHCs.

There is no better investment than PSBHA. Show your commitment by becoming a dues paying member today here.  

SBHCs in the News

Recently, Chalkbeat Philadelphia interviewed our very own Executive Director, Julie Cousler, about the urgent need for more SBHCs and for the state to provide funding. Check out the article:

Philadelphia District wants more school-based health clinics but state funding is an issue.