Caring for Kids:
Expanding Dental and Mental Health Services through School-Based Health
Centers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Maureen Cozine
RWJF News Line
609/627-5937
Annette Ferebee
Center for Health & Health Care in Schools
202/466-3396
RWJF Awards Grants to Support Expanded Mental and Dental Health Services
In Schools
Princeton, N.J., February 4, 2002 -- The burden of untreated mental
and dental health problems for children is substantial. To expand the
care available to children and youth, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
(RWJF) has awarded grants to fifteen organizations through a new program,
Caring for Kids: Expanding Dental and Mental Health Services Through
School-Based Health Centers. Administered by the Center for Health
and Health Care in Schools (CHHCS) at The George Washington University
in Washington, D.C., the program will support eight projects to expand
mental health services and seven to increase dental care in school-based
health centers across the country.
Over the next three years, project sites (see
attached list) will use the grants, each about $220,000, to test
and promote new models to expand dental or mental health services in
existing school-based health centers. Currently, there are more than
1,400 centers across the country.
Recent reports from the U.S. Surgeon General have highlighted the large
number of children and youth who do not get the care they need for mental
and dental health problems. For example, nine percent of children and
youth need help with emotional problems and 75 percent of them are not
being treated. An estimated five percent of children under 18 have untreated
dental problems, with that percentage rising to 39 percent for African
American children and 60 percent for Mexican-American children. An estimated
51 million hours of school are lost because of dental problems.
"School-based centers have been critical providers of health services
for young people, particularly those who are uninsured," said Julia
Graham Lear, Ph.D., program director of Caring for Kids. "This
program will expand the capacity of the funded centers to address these
critical problems and help other centers learn more about organizing
and financing mental and dental health services in schools."
These fifteen Caring for Kids projects will focus on expanding
services using established models as well as new approaches. Central
to all the projects are partnerships with community-based providers
and collaboration with parents and school administrators.
"The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has been investing in school-based
health centers for more than a quarter of a century," said Judith
Stavisky, M.Ed., M.P.H., senior program officer at the Foundation. "We're
eager to test these new ideas in established centers to expand the range
and improve the quality of available services for young people."
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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton,
N.J., is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health
and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in four goal areas:
to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable
cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions;
to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal,
social and economic harm caused by substance abuse -- tobacco, alcohol,
and illicit drugs.
The Center for Health and Heath Care in Schools is
a nonpartisan policy and program resource center located at The George
Washington University. The Center explores ways to strengthen the well
being of children and youth through effective health programs and health
services in schools. More information is available on the Center's web
site: www.healthinschools.org or contact the Center directly at 1350
Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 505, Washington, D.C. 20036.
