Since 1993, KMHS has worked with the Kitsap County Health District to provide a school-based health clinic at the Spectrum Alternative School in Kingston. A proven best practice program for prevention and intervention, clinics are located within schools to offer students ready access to medical services, drug and alcohol treatment, and mental health services. Many youth come in to access mental health services under the less stigmatizing guise of seeking medical attention, and mental health needs are the number one reason youth visit the clinic. The partnership with the Health District has allowed us to offer grief counseling and relationship counseling, as well as address a great deal of depression in teens.

Based on our work in Kingston, KMHS was approached to work with the Jefferson County community to help provide school-based health services to their youth. Jefferson County is using dollars allocated by their decision to enact a one-tenth of one percent sales tax specifically to enhance mental health and substance abuse services. School-based health clinics opened in the fall of 2008 in the Port Townsend, Chimicum and Quilcene School Districts. KMHS provides mental health services in these clinics because of our existing expertise in delivering services in this setting with staff from the Home-Based Family Services Team – Patricia Flowergrowing and Bruce Jackson. Medical and behavioral healthcare integration for youth has been repeatedly shown to be the ideal way of delivering health services, and KMHS is excited at the opportunity to provide additional services through this multi-disciplinary team approach. Without the School-Based Health Clinics, many of these teens would not receive services. Both Patricia and Bruce make special note of the confidentiality aspect for those who attend the clinics. Everything the teen says in a counseling session is confidential unless it concerns harm to the teen or harm from the teen to another, as licensed therapists are mandated to report these instances. Teens are also encouraged to have their families participate, and may invite a parent or caregiver to a therapy session so that communication is open. Other school districts in the Kitsap County area are considering the success of school-based health clinics. It is surely the wave of the future for healthcare delivery for our youth since schools are where the children are.