Newark well being clinic opens at West Ward elementary faculty
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Lots of of Newark youngsters and their households now have entry to a brand new well being heart situated in a public elementary faculty within the metropolis’s West Ward.
Metropolis and Newark Public Colleges leaders on Monday unveiled the brand new Mary Eliza Mahoney Well being Heart at Speedway Avenue Elementary College. The opening of the brand new well being heart, which is on the market to all Newark residents no matter medical insurance standing and skill to pay, comes at a time when plenty of metropolis households expertise restricted entry to medical companies and limitations to well being care.
“We’re enthusiastic about establishing a footprint right here within the West Ward and interesting with residents right here in our group,” mentioned Ketlen Baptiste-Alsbrook, director of the Newark Division of Well being and the brand new well being heart, throughout Monday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on the clinic.
In Newark, practically 20% of residents underneath 65 wouldn’t have medical insurance, in accordance with U.S. Census knowledge. The brand new well being heart is “step one alongside the trail” to sort out the issue among the many metropolis’s most susceptible residents, Baptiste-Alsbrook added.
That is the primary time town has opened a well being clinic in a Newark public faculty, in accordance with Metropolis of Newark press secretary Susan Garofalo.
Black and Hispanic residents in New Jersey face limitations to well being care and inexpensive medical protection because of restricted entry to well being care plans via their jobs, cost-related challenges, and transportation points amongst different inequities.
Throughout the state, Black New Jersey residents are twice as more likely to be uninsured and usually tend to search protection via public applications, in accordance with analysis from the New Jersey Coverage Perspective. The state’s immigrant communities are additionally the least more likely to be insured and roughly 17% of Hispanic residents stay uninsured within the state, in accordance with the New Jersey Coverage Perspective.
Research present that school-based well being clinics may help enhance pupil grades and attendance and scale back disparities by making well being care extra accessible to college students from low-income backgrounds. The brand new Newark school-based well being heart is a partnership between town and Newark Public Colleges and is funded via American Rescue Plan {dollars}. It features a small ready space and 4 examination rooms geared up with medical units and different tools.
The clinic is open Monday via Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. to residents in want of grownup, pediatric, and behavioral well being care. Residents can be seen by one in all two physicians — Dr. Rachel Tikum for household drugs and Dr. Ijeoma Onyeagoch for behavioral well being care companies.
“We’re attempting to do extra outreach locally since [this clinic] is correct right here within the faculty and is extra accessible. The truth that we take insured and uninsured residents and walk-ins may be very promising,” Tikum mentioned throughout Monday’s grand opening.
The middle has a separate entrance and exit from the elementary faculty that leads out into the parking zone on South Orange Avenue and “shouldn’t intervene with faculty actions,” metropolis officers mentioned.
Metropolis officers additionally mentioned the school-based well being heart will assist college students’ psychological well being at a time the place Black and Latino college students have much less entry to psychological well being assist than they did a decade in the past.
Newark Public Colleges lecturers and employees can refer college students to any of the clinic’s companies. The clinic employees will even work with faculty nurses to establish potential wants, Baptiste-Alsbrook added.
Moreover, the district’s 2022-23 funds included elevated staffing of social staff and counselors for any of its 38,000 college students who might have behavioral assist.
Residents excited about visiting the brand new clinic could make an appointment by calling 1-800- 734-7083.
Jessie Gómez is a reporter for Chalkbeat Newark, masking public training within the metropolis. Contact Jessie at jgomez@chalkbeat.org.
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