Moving The Teen Health Clinic to TC

(Saturday) March 20, 2010

I will mourn the passing of the Teen Health Clinic which served ALL adolescents in the City of Alexandria.  Once the clinic is placed within the TC Williams building, not only will a significant number of our city’s adolescents loose their only source of health care, but the new placement violates the original purpose of the clinic’s placement.  I was on the Alexandria School Board when the clinic was approved.  The site was very specifically chosen.  Surveys had found that: first, there were a large number of adolescents in the city who were not students in ACPS and had no where they could comfortably go for health care; two, the students in private or parochial schools did not have adequate access to health care; and three, even our own students felt that here was no confidentiality in receiving any form of health care or advice within TC.  All groups were successfully served in the clinic in its current location.  If the clinic is moved into TC, it will no longer have the advantage of confidentiality.  Adolescents who are not TC students, students in private and  parochial schools, and our own students will have lost any privacy in seeking care.

I am especially concerned about the large number of adolescents who are not TC students.  To reach the clinic they will have to be on TC property.  Without identification, how will they access the clinic without having to show some identification?  This will certainly have a chilling effect on their quest for privacy and will cause security concerns for TC staff.  In addition, relocating the clinic will be costly and involve reconfiguring a brand new building.  With money so short, and a clinic that works just fine where it is, why spend dollars that are so desperately needed elsewhere.  Why is the School Board choosing to take away a  facility that serves all of Alexandria’s  adolescents?  There is no gain in this action, only loss for many of our city’s children.  Removing the access to health care from those who need it the most is a thoughtless, heartless act.

Leslie Barnes Hagan