Bartlett’s health clinic serves students in multiple ways

BARTLETT HIGH SCHOOL— I'm not sure if you knew, but we have a medical clinic located at Bartlett. It's not just a clinic though, it also has a therapeutic room so students can come in and talk to someone about their issues.

 

The Anchorage School Based Health Centers (ASBHC) program started in the Anchorage School District in 2010 at Clark Middle School and then soon decided to go into high schools to help students and soon moved to other schools in 2014. They wanted to move to a high school to help push students in the right direction in life. 

 

Clinic executive director Heather Ireland said the move to high school was also to continue to support the middle schoolers as they transitioned into high school.

 

Since 2010, the clinic has seen 4,000 medical visits, and since 2015, almost 2,000 therapeutic counselling sessions in collaboration with volunteers of America.

 

In November of 2017, the clinic officially opened up at Bartlett. Their hours are once a week from 8:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. or until students stop coming in for the day. During the start of sports seasons, though, the clinic is more flexible with their hours because they do official sports physicals for student athletes. 

 

Ireland said the difference between the school nurse and the clinic is in numbers. Every school in the district has a school nurse, but only four schools have this clinic program. Ireland said the school nurse is responsible for the basic health concerns of students, but in the clinic, they can provide medicine, diagnose, run more tests, and basically do everything your family doctor can do. 

 

“The clinic has providers with better scope of practice,” Ireland said.

 

If you’re interested in learning more about the clinic, have questions or concerns, or wish to be seen by Ireland and her staff, the Bartlett clinic is located in Room 129 across from the Student Services office. Ireland can be contacted at 742-0479 or at hireland@aksbhc.org.