Power or Money
Mar 4th, 2010 by David Anderson
The state has this major concern, power or money. The school based wellness centers allow the state to give certain services and referrals to kids without those nosy parents getting in the way. Now they want to recoup insurance money from parents. The change could net them up to 3 million dollars. The problem is that they would lose the ability to go behind the back of many parents.
What a delima for the left, your children or your cash.
The wellness clinics can serve some good, but they seem as much a way to get into personal lives. It is the Trojan horse of health care.
This state is so corrupt with the finances and receipts, shady back room deals and now this wellness and healthcare deal, which will get butched, sliced and diced like poker chips. Thank gd for the power of the blogosphere in allowing you blogos to expose the scum of state politics… As a jewish (not that that matters) healthcare professional and loyal republican I’d like to read more follow-up on this story in the DE blogs, maybe not all the local blogs, but most — this is a partisan issue at its core and I think the debate would be of value to my fellow health and wellness colleagues. Speaking of DE blogs, de2010 just ripped delawareliberal a new a*hole and I’m pretty sure they’re republican, http://de2010.com/featured/bring-it-on/
How about they’re both mainpulative and sleazy ways of operating a government. We let this happen folks, by not recycling our representatives in Dover every couple of cycles we have allowed the same corrupt, ignorant, immoral imbeciles to turn our state into little more than a high functioning GULAG. The PARENTS of the children are the ones that MUST be 1.) allowed and 2.) encouraged to take responsibility for their children.
That doesn’t mean we let children be abused or mistreated. If there is a case that leads to that point the state must consider that the best interests of the child may dictate removal from the home and placement elsewhere at least until the parent can take the responsibility. This has to be done in court, judge, jury, the whole works. You simply do not get to go behind a parents back and treat their children except in absolute emergency (like a bus accident or playground fall). Even then the job of the medical technician is to stabilize the patient and ensure no further damage is done. Then the parent MUST be contacted. We don’t need “wellness clinics” in our damn schools. A school nurse with a couple of assistants should be enough to take care of all the kids even at the biggest schools.
They are called PUBLIC SCHOOLS. In this era of the cell phone, they should not be allowed to dispense as much as an aspirin without at least attempting to reach one of the parents. I am sick and tired of these PUBLIC SCHOOL administrators acting as though they are CEO’s of private enterprises. They are PUBLIC SCHOOLS, paid for and used by THE PUBLIC.
Amen Rick…I would argue if my son falls off the monkey bars the nurse better stablize his broken arm, bloddy nose and calm him down.
Nosy parents? I believe they are called minors for a reason. They neither have the reasoning, maturity or ability to make major decisions.
Any effort by the state which weakens the parent/child relationship is very sad.
Mike Protack
Mike, you usually get my sarcasm.
Public policy requires a lot of heavy lifting. Real work to understand what up. Here is a link to a comprehensive explanation of how school based wellness centers work. From what I see they are in high schools only. Most Delaware High Schools have them. Governor Castle got the ball rolling on this after numbers showed alarming rates of teen pregnancies coupled with high infant mortality in Delaware. Delaware is apparently a leader in what is regarded as a very successful program. The link is below, here is one excerpt. I don’t know much about this. Maybe something has changed.
III. All school-based health centers must receive written parental permission prior to providing medical services to students.
http://static.nemours.org/www-filebox/nhps/grow-up-healthy/visioning-future.pdf
If you are interested in influencing this policy, join the ranks of hard working parents, school leaders, and other dedicated professionals who have invested much time an effort to make our schools better. Study up, know the facts, make suggestions.
1. The wellness centers in schools are the result of a power grab by Christiana Care, plus the Republican penchant for privatization. Unwinding this power grab will take a lot of political will, and money too. Aim your arrows in the right direction.
2. “All school-based health centers must receive written parental permission prior to providing medical services to students.”
Unwinding this power grab will take a lot of political will, and money too.
I mean to say, if you WANT to unwind it. I am a little uncomfortable with the Christiana monopoly and management practices, but nobody can argue with the goals of the program. We’ve got kids who are obese, smoking, with emotional problems, chronic managed diseases, etc. This ain’t your father’s school nurse.
Here’s a randomly grabbed school wellness center. Who could be against this?
Q. Are all Wellness Center services confidential?
A. Yes, except for threats of harm to self or others, and child abuse. Access to records
requires a written release signed by the student.
I have a problem with two sets of books in accounting. I have an even greater problem with two sets of medical books. The child running one set and the parents running another. This could complicate health care not improve it. In the last 16 years have health outcomes improved significantly for the targeted group? I have always had a problem with confidentiality. I had a problem with it in the early 90′s and I do today.
Now that it may no longer be free, it will become interesting.
This is a Tom Carper initiative not a Republican one anon. He brought in the contractor which quite frankly works a whole lot better than the hiring of people to a lessor job.