Thursday, December 20, 2012

Colorado school-based health centers receive $1 million in grants

Font ResizeThe Denver Postdenverpost.comPosted: 12/19/2012 09:23:30 PM MSTDecember 20, 2012 4:25 AM GMTUpdated: 12/19/2012 09:23:35 PM MST

Three Colorado school-based health centers received more than $1 million in competitive grant funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday.

Sen. Mark Udall congratulated the Durango School District 9-R, Denver Health Medical Center and Commerce City Community Health Services for receiving the funds.

The grants are issued under the School-Based Health Center Capital Program, and are designed to help schools and other entities improve and expand its school-based health centers.

Denver Health Medical Center received $500,000, Durango School District 9-R received $485,265 and the Commerce City Community Health Services received $36,985.

"These competitive grants will help improve school-based clinics in Denver, Durango and Commerce City, giving students more access to preventive and primary health care services," Udall said in a statement. "Keeping our children healthy from day one is an important way to ensure students are productive in the classroom and that we catch health problems early when they are most affordable and easiest to treat."

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius awarded more than $80 million to 197 school-based health center programs across the country, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' website. The funding is expected to help health centers serve an additional 384,000 students and continue the expansion of preventive and primary health care services.

School-based health centers are designed to help children with acute or chronic illnesses attend school and improve screenings and disease prevention activities. They typically combine primary care, mental health care, substance abuse counseling, dental health and other treatments.



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