Let Us Know What You Think!

For the first time ever NASBHC put a special effort into using social media tools to enhance the 2010 National School-Based Health Care Convention experience for both attendees and non-attendees.
Here's what we accomplished:

• Live video streaming of all three Convention plenary sessions -- video archived on www.nasbhc.org/conventionvideophotos 
• 23 posts over four days on our Convention blog, www.nasbhc.blogspot.com  
• Convention news, updates, and comments on NASBHC's Twitter page, www.twitter.com/nasbhc
• Live Twitter feed displayed in the Convention ballroom before and after plenaries and displayed in the exhibitor hallway
• Video and photos from the Advocacy Day Rally at www.nasbhc.org/advocacyday
• Video interviews and photos from the Convention at www.nasbhc.org/conventionvideophotos  
• Three NASBHC Social Media Fellows Tweeting, doing video interviews, and answering questions!

We're proud of what we achieved in this first year of our social media push, but also want to explore how we can make our use of these tools even more vibrant and useful over the next year and for the 2011 Convention in Chicago.


NASBHC has put together a short, anonymous survey to learn more about how you utilized our website, blog, live plenary video, Twitter, etc. -- if at all -- and we'd appreciate it if you could take 5 minutes to let us know what you think.


If you attended the Convention in person, please take this survey:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22AUCLV53AY 

If you did not attend the Convention in person, please take this survey: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22AUCUL57ZS


Thanks!

Helping Immigrant and Refugee students Achieve School Success: Partnering with families to support student needs

Immigrant and refugee students generally enter American schools with optimism and they work hard. Yet many soon fall behind, with decreasing academic success over the years.  Second- and third-generation immigrants often face greater academic concerns. The alarming high school drop-out rate is nearly 25% for foreign-born students and 16% for those with foreign-born parents. 

Schools typically focus on improving English skills, yet the immigrant experience itself brings challenges beyond learning a new language. One factor often overlooked is that immigrant and refugee students – and their families – face unique mental health issues that can interfere with student achievement.  In coming to the U.S., children often leave close relatives behind, and many experience a grueling and violent journey.  Students who are refugees often bring deep emotional scars from repeated violence, with limited prior educational opportunities. 

Although they may be severe, the mental health needs of immigrant and refugee students frequently remain unidentified. A child who appears to be disinterested in schoolwork may actually be depressed, living with parents who themselves are depressed as they struggle to adjust. A student with violent outbursts who seems to be undisciplined can be reliving the emotion of a turbulent event in a war-torn country, experiencing a heightened “fight or flight” response.  

Even if the needs are identified, immigrant and refugee students usually have limited access to mental health care and face barriers of culture as well as language.  Many fade into the background, often viewed as disinterested or unwilling to learn, and they fall farther and farther behind academically.

One critical element of supporting these students to improve their academic achievement is engaging their families. This is particularly significant for immigrant and refugee families which tend to be close-knit and protective. While these families are committed to supporting their children, engaging them in school is often challenging, particularly in areas of student mental health which is stigmatized in many cultures of recent immigrants. 

This workshop will highlight strategies identified through the Caring Across Communities (CAC) Initiative, administered by The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools at The George Washington University.  Through CAC, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded grants totaling $4.5 million to15 projects in diverse U.S. communities. The grants support a range of innovative partnerships among schools and community organizations that build effective, easily accessed services. 

I’ve posted two articles I co-authored on this issue on the convention website: “Helping immigrant and refugee students succeed: It’s not just what happens in the classroom,” a version of an article that appeared in the November 2009 Kappan; and “Partnering with Parents and Families to Support Immigrant and Refugee Children at School,” an Issue Brief published by The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools in June 2009.  

Eileen Gale Kugler
www.EmbraceDiverseSchools.com
Twitter: embraceDiversiT         Facebook: Embrace Diverse Schools

Advocacy Day Isn't Over Yet

Here are five simple steps to maximize the impact of our Hill visits beyond June 17:

1. Write a thank you note to everyone you met

• Your mother was right: it's nice to be thanked. So make sure you send a thank you note to each staff member you met with, and to the members themselves if you were fortunate enough to meet them. Remind them about our issues -- providing specific details from the meeting will improve your note.

• Ask the person to whom you are writing to clarify, once again, the office’s position on a $50 million appropriation for SBHC operations:

• Either thank them for their stated support; or

• If they were noncommittal, ask again.

• Lastly, invite the member to visit a school-based health center in your community.

2. Send us your photos!

• Email them to Adrienne Ammerman, Director of Communications, at aammerman@nasbhc.org so we can include them in our files and on our website.

3. Fill our your meeting reports

• If a tree falls in the forest with no one around, does it make a sound? Honestly, I don't know. But I do know that if you don't tell us (in the national office) about your meetings, it's almost like it never happened.

• So: please email me at jrovner@nasbhc.org to let me know how it went. And please be specific about whether any follow-up is needed.

 

4. Media advocacy

• Write a letter to the editor about your meetings. Letters are generally limited to 200 words, though that can differ by newspaper.

• Mention your meeting with the member’s office and his or her position. Specifically, use the member’s name so that the letter to the editor appears in the office’s google news alerts.

• Do not make demands; this can backfire. If the member is negative toward our issues, express your disappointment – not anger.

• Express the hope that the member can help the children and adolescents of your community and the whole nation.

• You should also consider writing an op-ed piece.  Use the ideas from above regarding a letter to the editor – they apply here, as well. Let us know about your successes!

5. Mailing lists

• Add the staff members you met with to your mailing list and stay in touch with them in the future.

Josh Rovner, Director of Policy & Advocacy

Advocacy Day Video (Part 1 of 4)

Thanks to Iman Shervington for her great work filming and editing this film!

Outreach and Enrollment: Denver Case Studies

In 2008 the City and County of Denver reported that 25,353 children 0-18 years old were eligible but not enrolled (EBNE) in Medicaid or CHP+. The Denver Health School-Based Health Centers (DSBHC) are located in 12 Denver Public Schools offering primary care services to over 10,000 students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch, an indicator for Medicaid or CHP+ eligibility.  Over the past 5 years DSBHC has been developing more efficient systems and processes in its outreach and enrollment program to assist and enroll uninsured children and families of its clinics. 

During the 2009-2010 school year, the DSBHC outreach and enrollment program held over 300 enrollment events enrolling over 4000 children and their family members in Medicaid, CHP+ or a discount program. Not only does the program effect the number of EBNE children but it has also made a significant change to the continued decline of the number of uninsured visits to the DSBHCs. DSBHC has also seen an increase in the number of Medicaid and CHP+ visits which has had a positive impact to the sustainability of the program.

During the workshop, Dr. Steve Federico, DSBHC Medical Director and Audrey Hoener, DSBHC Operations Manager, will not only discuss the success of the program but plan to offer building blocks to participants as to how they too can create an outreach and enrollment program that will benefit their needs. The workshop will give participants an opportunity to learn about becoming a Certified Application Assistant Site, Presumptive Eligibility Site, Medical Assistance Site, finding the right employees for the program, developing relationships with schools and the community and how the program strengthens SBHC models and patient care.

Dr. Steve Federico and Audrey Hoener, Denver Health School-Based Health Centers

Youth Leaving Their Mark on North Carolina 10 Youth, 10 Cities, 10 Times the Results



In North Carolina, with limited funding, the NC School Community Health Alliance has used a nationally recognized Youth Empowerment Model to create a statewide youth council, the NC Teen Health Alliance, as well as an undercurrent of youth-charged advocacy work for school health centers. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to participate in a youth-led examination of the Results-Based Youth Empowerment Model and how it has been effective in developing a statewide grassroots advocacy movement. 



The workshop will be co-facilitated by youth and adults and will examine the 3 major components of the model, Critical Awareness, Skill Building, and Opportunities. Participants will learn how to recognize the difference between youth involvement and youth empowerment, as well as the characteristics and sustainability associated with each. Finally, through targeting the Opportunities component, participants will explore the Real Time Community Change program of investing small amounts of money over short periods of time in a way that creates huge amounts of tangible outcomes. During the workshop, participants will look at major concepts such as “The Investor vs. The Funder”, “Goals vs. Results”, and “Coaching vs. Playing” in a way that will allow for personal and programmatic reflection, as well as strategies for implementation.

Parrish Ravelli, North Carolina School Community Health Alliance

Update on the SBHC Regulations: $200 million in Funding

Those of you unable to join us on the south side of the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia, for our opening plenary with Jim Macrae missed an important update on the forthcoming regulations that will help SBHCs nationwide continue and expand the care that they are providing forchildren and adolescents.

For some background, it’s important that you understand that Section 4101(a) the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act appropriated $200 million over the next four years for construction and equipment for new and existing SBHCs.  We’re very grateful to our Congressional champions for making that happen, since the $200 million will make a big difference in the lives of youth everywhere.  I attended two terrific Advocacy Day meetings earlier in the day with a few high school seniors and recent graduates from high schools in Maine, and they made the case of what can happen with that funding – and what else can be accomplished if Congress appropriates an additional $50 million for the operation of SBHCs as authorized under section 4101(b).

Jim Macrae is the Associate Administrator for Primary Health Care in the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA).  As the head of the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC), he is in charge of drafting the regulations that will specify how the $200 million appropriation for construction and equipment.  He told a packed ballroom that the regulations are in the draft stage, and will be published in roughly one month.

As soon as the regulations are available we’ll convene phone calls to alert the field of the availability of the funds, and some assistance on how to structure the request for your center’s share of these competitive grants.  Mr. Macrae also said that BPHC plans on holding its own phone calls with interested stakeholders to answer questions that remain after the regulations are published.

So stay tuned to our website.  And become a member of NASBHC to become the first to know when the regulations are published.

Josh Rovner, Director of Policy and Advocacy

Groupthink: Supporting Adolescents with Diabetes through a SBHC Support Group

It’s a pleasure to be back at the National conference with peers who are dedicated to SBHC’s and committed to being on the “front line” as advocates and caregivers of young people in our country.  I’m honored to be among you, whether you here in DC or virtually.  The presentation I’m giving this year is a summary of the work I’ve been doing at Duke while completing my Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP) Degree.  For those who are not familiar with the DNP’s focus, we complete a “Capstone” project (rather than a thesis) that evaluates the effectiveness of an innovation in nursing practice or one that is being proposed for practice in a healthcare setting.  I choose to look at the effects of a SBHC support group that works with adolescents with insulin-dependent diabetes, a project we had started at my clinical setting three years ago, but had no idea of its effectiveness.  Through the Capstone, I was not only able to get a clear view of the significant risk factors and self-care behaviors the teens were choosing, but also the incredible difference  we could make by providing a support group within the SBHC, or as some put it, a “safety net in the fabric of the school day” for the adolescents.  

This affordable and sensible group approach yielded significant positive effects among the teen participants which included positive weight changes, stabilization of metabolic status, reduction of risk factors and negative diabetes care behaviors.  Perhaps most importantly, the project demonstrated significant improvements in the adolescent’s self-confidence in managing their disease and a reduction in their stress and depression ratings.  In essence, support groups work! With well-planned SBHC outreach efforts that support teens with Diabetes, we can make significant POSITIVE impact on the lives of adolescents and perhaps their future!  

The implications for SBHC support groups are vast—not only in the US, but worldwide, not only for Diabetes, but for all chronic illness. I welcome comments and questions, so please feel free to contact me.

Anne Derouin DNP, CPNP
Clinical Associate, Duke School of Nursing
Southern High School Wellness Center
Duke Community and Family Medicine

Love Your Liver

It is exciting to be convening with colleagues from across the country who are committed to improving youth health outcomes; an issue very dear to many of us. 

We at the American Liver Foundation are no exception. Since its inception 20 months ago, our Love Your Liver (LYL) program has reached nearly 60,000 students, educating them about their liver and the actions they can take to prevent liver disease. 

When we first welcome students to the program, some look at us with great curiosity and interest as they are not quite sure what to expect. Others shoot us a “why do I need to know about this” look. The program starts with intriguing liver facts and powerful visuals. You can see the interest build as students’ hands soar into the air at top speed asking to be called on.  Students then engage in activities that reinforce the information they learned. It never ceases to amaze us how much the 7 year olds want to keep playing Liver Bingo or how competitive the 15 year olds are in answering each question correctly for their team in Liver Trivia.  Finally, students complete evaluation forms indicating the knowledge gained and topics of interest. As it turns out, students have significant increase in liver knowledge and are excited to share and apply what they learned with family and friends.  

Come see us and the “Love Your Liver: Empowering Youth with Liver Health Knowledge” poster to learn about this free and effective resource that is available to you and your community! Help us empower students with liver health knowledge so they can forge a healthy future for themselves. Look forward to seeing you soon! 

Indhira Blackwood, Jeroen Kwakkenbos, and Susan Robinson

The Impact of School-Based Health Services on Access, and Utilization of Health Services, Three Years Post Disaster

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (September 2005), schools in the New Orleans Metropolitan area were under siege.  Total school facilities in two Parishes (Counties) were completely destroyed.  Students and teachers were displaced from their homes and trying to put their lives and their schools back together.  The one Parish with the most schools and communities intact was swamped with displaced and troubled students.

This was the context, with all of its related challenges, within which the school-based health centers (SBHCs) had to be rebuilt and expanded.  The whole process had tremendous complexities, but in many respects, it was also a great opportunity to build a new and better system of care for vulnerable youth at a time when they needed it most.

With the resources provided by a generous grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the SBHC leaders formed School Health Connection and took on the challenge.  The SBHCs would be new sites in new schools, so the circumstances provided a great opportunity to study the impact of SBHCs in addressing the health needs of students- needs that were exacerbated by the hurricane disaster.  I hope you will come to our session and hear about our experiences.

Marsha Broussard, MPH  and Sarah Kohler, MPH, Program Director & Evaluation Coordinator, School Health Connection, Louisianan Public Health Institute

Thanks!

It’s been more than a day since we finished our Advocacy Day rally,

and I think I can speak for all the staff when I say how excited we

all were by the turnout and by our great speakers. Special thanks to

our Congressional champions, Senator Jeff Merkley and Representatives

John Dingell, John Sarbanes, Chris Murphy, and Lois Capps, for getting

us revved up for a great day.

I attended six meetings and got to meet advocates from Oakland and Los

Angeles, Miami-Dade County in Florida, North Carolina’s Research

Triangle, Cincinnati, and from all over the state of Maine. The

offices I met with couldn’t help by be impressed by the stories from

our next generation of advocates – some still in high school, some who

just graduated – who made the commitment to come to Washington and

speak up from themselves and their friends. I loved hearing how these

youth understand that, whatever successes they’ve had taking care of

their own community, that they owe it to the friends they’ve never met

to look out for the kids without an SBHC in their schools.

As I said at the morning rally: every school deserves a health center.

And we made that case to more than 120 Senators, Representatives, and

their staffs. Our yellow shirts were all over the Hill yesterday, and

our voices will persist long after.

Josh Rovner, NASBHC Director of Policy and Advocacy

Advocacy Day Photos

Photos from the California School Health Center Association's Youth Board

Community Schools and School-Based Health Centers: Seeking Academic Success for Students Through Community Partners

Dr. Marilyn Crumpton and Darlene Kamine will be presenting a workshop on school based health centers as part of the popular and quickly expanding community school model that is transforming schools across the country. With multiple partners co-located and collaborating at a school site as part of a shared vision to support the students, their families and the neighborhood, school based health centers within a community school are part of a more desirable holistic approach to improved health and wellness.

 As community learning centers typically offer extended hours daily and year round, school based health providers can expand their client base and serve students during and beyond the school day as well as children and families in the neighborhood who may not otherwise be connected to the school.  School based health centers operating within the community school paradigm also can operate more efficiently as overhead expenses are often absorbed by the school district and administrative costs such as evaluation and technology may be shared among the partners. 

Community schools establish a hub for students, families and neighborhoods, especially those disconnected by urban sprawl, demanding work schedules or unemployment, lack of family support, increased mobility, homelessness, and the many other challenges that families face. In the community school setting, school based health centers have an opportunity to grow services into the community and improve the quality of life for all.

Dr. Crumpton and Ms. Kamine have been working together on the development of community schools including school based health services since 2002 in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Dr. Crumpton is a pediatrician and the Executive Director of Growing Well Cincinnati, a health partnership network that provides the capacity for coordinated school health within the Cincinnati Public Schools Community Learning Centers. Dr. Crumpton is also the Medical Director of the Division of School and Adolescent Health for the Cincinnati Health Department. She has spent her career in public health including twelve years as the County Health Officer in Dothan, Alabama. She also served as the Director of Maternal and Child Health in Annapolis Maryland, and as the Associate Medical Director for the Alabama Medicaid Agency.  

Ms. Kamine is an attorney who has devoted her career to juvenile justice including 17 years on the bench as a magistrate in Cincinnati’s juvenile court. She is also the founder of ProKids, a guardian ad litem program representing abused, neglected and dependent children in the juvenile justice system.   

Dr. Crumpton and Ms. Kamine came together with a shared vision to help create the kind of schools in the kind of neighborhoods where we would all want to send our children. The community schools in Cincinnati have been recognized as one of the leading community school initiatives in the country.

Watch the Archived Video of the Opening Plenary

Miss the opening plenary Thursday evening? You can watch the archived video online here.

Some of the Special Guests from the Advocacy Day Rally

Thanks to Senator Merkley (OR) and Representatives Dingell (MI), Murphy (CT), Sarbanes (MD), and Capps (CA) for speaking at our rally this morning! More details and photos to come...

Welcome to Advocacy Day! At the Mott House #nasbhc on Twitpic

Welcome to Advocacy Day! At the Mott House #nasbhc on Twitpic

Suicide Postvention in Schools: An Innovative Toolkit for Managing Crises

Few things distress a school community more than a student’s death by suicide, yet school teachers, administrators and staff often don’t have what they need to respond to a suicide crisis. Knowing the right things to do after a student’s suicide is essential for helping students and staff cope with the loss and prevent further tragedies.

I’ll be doing a poster presentation (“Suicide Postvention in Schools: An Innovative Online Toolkit for Managing Crises”) that discusses the importance of suicide prevention and postvention* in schools, and provides an overview of a forthcoming online toolkit for responding to a suicide crisis. I got involved with developing the toolkit as part of my role as a Senior Prevention Specialist at the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC), a national technical assistance resource center.

The project is a collaborative effort between SPRC, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and seeks to meet a distinct need in the field for concise, easy to access information to help schools respond after a suicide. I’ve had a longstanding passion for school-based work, so the toolkit was a good fit with my interests and skills. 

I’m excited to be presenting on this topic at NASBHC’s Convention and look forward to conversations about how the toolkit will benefit SBHCs, whether there are content areas that are especially relevant for your school communities, and how we might think about promoting the toolkit when it goes live in September.

*Suicide postvention refers to the provision of crisis intervention and other support following a suicide to address and alleviate the possible effects of suicide, including contagion.

Gayle Jaffe, MSW, MPH is a Senior Prevention Specialist with the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (www.sprc.org), which provides support, training, and resources to organizations and individuals at the national, tribal, state, territorial, and community levels.

Attention all Mental Health Providers!

Laura Hurwitz, Director of School Mental Health at NASBHC, invites all mental health provides to a networking session on Friday June 18th from 4:45-6:00 pm in the Manassas room, on the second level of the hotel.  Mental health providers will have an opportunity to share what they are doing in their SBHCs with their colleagues around the country as well as to learn about some of NASBHC’s school mental health work.  

If you haven’t yet rsvp’d, you can do so by emailing Laura at LHurwitz@nasbhc.org.

Introducing... NASBHC's Social Media Fellows (part 2 of 2)

Introducing…  Iman Shervington

Greetings fellow NASBHC convention attendees! I'm from a community-based non-profit in New Orleans called the Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies (IWES), and as a Social Media Fellow I'm here to impart the highlights, sights and sound(bites) back to you, as well as to those that couldn't make it this year. I have an MFA in Film Directing, and at IWES I am privileged to be able to mix my love of art and media with social justice, specifically to advocate for the health and well-being of the youth of the New Orleans metro area. 

Through our Media Advocates for Prevention (MAP) program as well as our Social marketing Technology Outreach Program (STOP), I work with youth aged 13-24 to promote HIV prevention and sexual health among their peers through youth-created media content (audio and film pieces). A major focus of both of these programs is new media, specifically the utilization of web-based technologies such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, & YouTube. At IWES, we also work with the Louisiana Public Health Initiative (LPHI) to promote School-Based Health Centers in New Orleans by serving as a liaison between the administration and the community to promote enrollment and utilization of clinic services. 

I look forward to meeting many new friends this weekend and sharing your stories through NASBHC's social media channels! Please look out for me throughout the convention if you have an interesting experience you would like to share.

Introducing… NASBHC Social Media Fellow Darby Baker

Hello everyone! My name is Darby Baker and I am from Camas Valley, Oregon. I am affiliated with Umpqua Community Health Clinic of Roseburg, Oregon. I am currently the receptionist for their School Based Health Center at Douglas High School in Winston Oregon. Umpqua Community Health Clinic is a Federally Qualified Health Center so I work in their other locations as well. Currently they operate two school based health centers and four not for profit health centers located throughout Douglas County as well as a dental clinic. We operate on mostly federal dollars that offset out expenses so that we are able to provide health care in a teen health center setting but are able to provide health and dental care to uninsured adults as well.

Social media started its impact for the 2010 NASBHC Convention many months ago. The ability to email, blog, text, facebook and twitter has made the ability to converse with other professionals much easier and many of the same network users will be able to use those tools while they attend the convention. The ability to stay in contact via Twitter and Facebook is a popular choice instead of phone calls and email. Bloggers have exploded onto the social scene and the ability to share technology and content has evolved dramatically. Having the ability to ask questions, participate in Webinars and having access to so much information from others in the same professional capacity is encouraging. Convention goers will easily be able to continue their communications long after the conference is over. 

The media that will profoundly impact the NASBHC Convention will not stop with the attendees. Even those that are unable to attend the convention will be able to access certain information through the internet. I always look forward to meeting new people and having the ability to continue these professional relationships via Twitter and Facebook. We can share ideas, concerns and even plan for the next conference thanks to the accessibility of social media and the profound effect it has on our world today.

Introducing... NASBHC's Social Media Fellows (Part 1 of 2)

Introducing… Robin Kirkpatrick, LCSW, MPH

I applied for the Social Media Fellowship because I am very interested in Social Networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs as relatively new sociocultural phenomenon. I am fascinated by the possibility these resources hold as tools for health education with teens, how adolescents utilize these venues to express themselves and interact, and how we as adult advocates can make use of these resources to connect with each other, as well as with young people, around topics that are engaging for all of us.

Good writing, a sense of humor, and a compelling circumstance, such as the NASBHC Convention, can combine to create a persuasive platform to inform and inspire interested parties.  My previous experience working in two school-based clinics, and now working as an advocate for school-based health care in my current job as the Associate Director of the California Adolescent Health Collaborative, (CAHC) provide me with a broad knowledge base from which to discuss the exciting events that are sure to unfold during the 2010 Convention.

The other element of social media that I really enjoy is the interaction; it’s always a surprise what people will respond to: what thoughts, impressions, and ideas are inspired by a post, comment, picture, link, or video.  I look forward to a engaging with a lively and provocative community of school health advocates during the convention.

Robin has worked in the field of adolescent health for the past thirteen years. Both in direct service with adolescents as a mental health provider, and in research, policy, and advocacy work on youth health, she has sought to find creative solutions to the myriad of challenges teens face.  Currently, she is the Associate Director for the California Adolescent Health Collaborative.  The California Adolescent Health Collaborative (CAHC), a project of the Public Health Institute, is a public-private statewide coalition with the goal of increasing understanding and support for adolescent health and wellness in California.  In this position, she is involved in direct research on a range of adolescent health issues as well as policy and advocacy efforts to improve health services and environments for teens throughout California.

Introducing…. Suzanne Keep MSN, RN

Social media is becoming an essential means of communication in both the work place and personal social networks. Incorporating social media into the 2010 National School Based Health Care Convention allows those who are not able to attend the conference feel as though they are a part of the conference through attendants’ blog posts, tweets and Facebook updates.  Creating a viral buzz about the convention will be vital to the convention’s success, and social media and networking can only enhance this viral buzz. I believe that if as many of the attendees as possible can be active in social media, the convention will have an unprecedented interest and following.

Suzanne is an assistant professor for the University of Detroit McAuley School of Nursing at the Grand Rapids, Michigan campus, and a PhD in Nursing student at Rutgers University. Suzanne teaches community health practicum where students are in the Grand Rapids Public Schools, working with school nurses.

Advocacy Day Starts Tomorrow

Good afternoon, everyone.

We’re putting some of the final touches on our Advocacy Day, and it’s really looking terrific.  We’ve scheduled more than 110 meetings (more are coming in even as I type), thanks to the great work of our field.  At least nineteen of those meetings are with the appropriators who are pivotal to making sure SBHCs get the resources they need to keep their doors open and continue providing care.  We have meetings with twelve offices whose members sit on the education committees – Education and Labor in the House and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in the Senate.  Everywhere we go, we’ll be making the common-sense case for why healthy students make better learners.

I hope we’ll have some blog posts as the day goes on to let you know how the rally in the morning goes and what feedback we hear from the Congressional offices in our meetings.  If you’re not coming to the convention, please be sure to contact your members to express support for school-based health care in your community.  Invite your representative to tour a clinic.  Write a letter to the editor.

But for the hundreds of you who are traveling to the Convention: I can’t wait to see you.  Bring your spirit and your passion.  Let’s make it a great day!
Josh Rovner, NASBHC Policy & Advocacy Director

NASBHC's School-Based Health Care Convention is Going Live!

NASBHC is celebrating our 15^th anniversary by taking our Convention in to the digital age.

This year, SBHC advocates who can’t attend the Convention will be able to watch a LIVE video feed of all three plenary sessions!

Plus, participants at the Convention and at home can participate by reading and writing blogs and Twitter feeds.

Check back here for more details...