THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 1, 1995 TAG: 9504010241
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
A state-funded program that has provided on-site health care to hundreds of Northeastern High School students this year soon will be under the scrutiny of a legislative subcommittee looking for ways to reduce spending.
Officials overseeing the program at 14 pilot sites across the state say they are worried the project, which has come under political attack in some areas, is in danger.
The program, known locally as CHYP, offers health care and treatment for students at their schools. In many cases, the trailer behind Northeastern High School is the only place students without insurance can get treatment outside a hospital emergency room.
The Collaboration for Healthy Youth in Pasquotank operates primarily on $65,000 in annual state funding and combines the efforts of a half-dozen agencies dealing with children and health. The program is in its third year and is slated for two more years of state support.
The project last year consisted mostly of referral appointments funneled through a coordinator based at Northeastern. This year, CHYP was outfitted with a trailer at the school, where a full-time nurse-practitioner typically sees more than 20 students a day.
CHYP administrators hope to use a separate $100,000 grant to expand the program next year to the middle school.
Supporters say the program has improved children's health and is less expensive than the cost of treating uninsured children in emergency rooms.
``If we cut this program, these kids are going to be back in the most expensive place where they can get care,'' said Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Board of Education member Nita Coleman, a pediatrician.
State officials say the program is keeping its participants busy.
``The most productive of these adolescent health centers have been used a ton,'' said Duncan Shaw, who oversees the pilot programs as adolescent health project coordinator in the state Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources.
``They are certainly meeting a need for the kids who lack access to health care,'' Shaw said. ``Primary care and preventive care is by definition cost-effective, and that's what we are seeing with these health centers.''
The staff at the Northeastern trailer provides students with medical exams, immunizations, social-work services and referrals. Students with insurance or Medicaid are billed. Students without health care coverage - the majority of patients - are seen without charge.
``The program has been working great,'' said program coordinator Debbie Baker, who lauded teachers and parents for their support.
Whether the statewide program takes a direct hit remains to be seen, officials say. The project has come under political fire from some who believe the centers are passing out contraceptives or recommending abortions.
But state health officials say that perception is untrue. None of the centers provides those services, they say.
``There has been so much misinformation, and out-and-out wrong information, about the adolescent health centers,'' said Mary Bobbitt-Cooke, executive director of the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force. Bobbitt-Cooke is following the state budgeting process.
The program's survival, Bobbitt-Cooke said, ``depends on who is making decisions and who is influencing people based on fact or misinformation.''
Workers at the local pilot sites have been encouraged to make sure their representatives understand the role of the health centers.
``They should contact their legislators to let them know how effective these programs are,'' said Sheila Sholes-Ross of the Center For Early Adolescence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Officials also speculate that the program may be in jeopardy because it covers only a portion of the state's counties. Many other limited programs, including a school-based pilot project that netted Pasquotank about $200,000 a year, have fallen to the budget ax.
The CHYP program's $100,000 grant means the local center will probably survive - with fewer services - if the General Assembly withdraws its support, Baker said.
``It's not like we're going to be high and dry if we don't get state funding again,'' Baker said. But ``it would be really difficult for the school system and the health department to pick up the cost of everything.'' by CNB