Catholic Community Opposes Relocation Of Teen Clinic

(Wednesday) March 3, 2010

By Carla Branch and James Cullum

alexandrianews.org

For months, the Alexandria City Public School system and the Alexandria Health Department have been developing a plan to relocate the adolescent clinic to T. C. Williams High School. Members of the City’s catholic community are opposed to the plan because clinic staff provide contraceptives and other family planning information.

Speakers expressed their opinions on the clinic relocation for more than an hour at last night’s School Board budget public hearing. The capital budget, which the Board is considering, includes $40,000 to renovate space at T. C. Williams High School that will house the clinic. The clinic is currently located in a trailer on the grounds of the Minnie Howard campus of T. C. Williams.

“Schools should be in the business of facilitating communication between parents and kids,” said Susan Doyle, an Alexandria resident who spent 15 years as an ACPS special education teacher and now works at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. “Bringing the clinic into the high school further pre-empts the possibility of parents’ involvement in some of the most serious and consequential decision their kids make.

“I don’t have the numbers to support this but understand anecdotally that young girls are often completely skipping over the pill and heading right for the morning after pill, which is dispensed by the clinic. We’re still in the first generation of the morning after pill. Do we really want to treat these girls as guinea pigs? Isn’t there another way to provide true health care for our uninsured youth without degrading them,” Doyle said.

The clinic has served Alexandria teens for more than 20 years, providing sports physicals, immunizations, primary health care, mental health counseling and family planning information. Although the clinic’s hours have always been limited – 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday – many high school students visited the clinic during their lunch hour. In 2007, when the new T. C. Williams high school opened, the campus was closed and students are no longer allowed to leave during lunch.

From Sept. 1, 2008, through June 30, 2009, the teen clinic saw 1077  patients for 1878 clinic visits; in 2007-08, 952 patients for 1640 visits; in 2006-07, 1155 patients for 1967 visits; in 2005-06, 1211 patients for 2156 visits and in 2004-05, 1128 patients for 2,202 visits.

The center’s new location will accommodate twice the number of teens receiving medical and mental health services at the current Adolescent Health Center located on Braddock Road. It will allow increased collaboration among schools, the health department and mental health providers; increased enrollment of high school students and continued coordination of health care with primary care providers. Services will include wellness promotion, mental health/substance abuse services, physical exams (including routine exams and sports physicals), immunizations, treatment for episodic illnesses and sexually transmitted infections, family planning and child health.

The School Health Advisory Board has been integrally involved in the plans to move the clinic to T. C. “I suffer from clinical depression,” said Flor Guzman. “When I was at Hammond, Margaret, my therapist, was there. When I had my melt down, I went down and said,’Margaret, I need you’.

Mirna Membrano is a freshman member of the Health Advisory Board.“Teens are lazy enough as it is. It’s not so easy for us to get to the other clinic. It’s a convenient location inside the school. If we provide birth control… we will reduce the teen pregnancy rate. We have to spread awareness of the resources that are available in our city,”  Membrano, said.

That teen pregnancy rate has long been a concern for Alexandria officials as it has consistently been the highest in Northern Virginia. In 1997, the teen pregnancy rate in Alexandria was 60.8 per 1000 teen females. In 2006, the rate had declined to 48.1 pregnancies per 1000 teen females in Alexandria.

Becky Griesse is the coordinator of the Alexandria Campaign on Adolescent Pregnancy. “Alexandria’s teen pregnancy rate is too high. While much progress has been made and the rate has decreased by 27% over the last ten years, it is still almost three times the Northern Virginia rate and almost two times the State rate. By moving the teen wellness center to T. C., we are providing another way for youth who are sexually active – about 50% of T. C. and 30% of middle school students – to easily access important family planning services to help avoid pregnancy. It also provides the opportunity for the clinicians to talk to youth about how to avoid and delay sex,” she said.

Father John Cregan is the rector at Blessed Sacrament. “There is no need for a clinic in a high school. You need permission for a sports physical but not for contraceptive use or treatment for drug use. You don’t need a parent’s notification with these family planning services. Let’s keep these important family decisions at home,” he said.

Unless the School Board removes the funding for renovating the space at T. C. or takes some other action to stop it, the clinic could open at T. C. in the fall.