West Virginia. With its unparalleled beauty, it can be a wonderful place for children to grow and develop a sense of strong community. Unfortunately for some, growing up in the Mountain State can be challenging. Approximately 25 percent of West Virginia’s children live in poverty with many more poised just above it. While an increased number of children in West Virginia are today covered by health insurance, many still experience limited access to health care while also being exposed to unhealthy lifestyles at home.
Lincoln Primary Care and Southern West Virginia are proactively combating the statistics and have improved children’s access to medical care and health education through expansion of our school-based program to include three new school-based health centers in Ranger (Lincoln County), Man (Logan County) and Alum Creek (Kanawha County). The addition of the new health centers brings the total number of school-based health centers that our organization manages to eight. Thanks to cooperation from local education boards to let us become an integral part of their school systems’ services, our school-based health centers reached students with nearly 6,400 family medicine encounters through June 2016.
Improving access to dental care has also been a priority. Our mobile dental program expanded in 2016 to include visits to every elementary school in both Lincoln and Logan counties. Dental encounters through June 2016 totaled 816 with 422 of those encounters performed via the mobile school-based dentistry program.
The Lincoln Primary Care Center network of care is thankful to the many staff members who support our school-based efforts by touching the lives of children with high-quality, compassionate care. One patient at a time, they are shaping healthier lives across our beloved state.
Learn more about our school-based program and the services we offer by clicking here.
