The Healthcare Georgia Foundation awarded $500,000 to the Urban Health Program at DeKalb County’s Emory University in coordination with West End Medical Centers Inc. in southwest Atlanta to open three school-based health centers across Georgia.
Lake Forest was selected to be a school to receive money from the grant to partner with West End Medical Center in opening the first school-based health center in Fulton County.
The school will receive an initial grant of $158,572, according to the school system’s website.
Karen Cox, area superintendent over the elementary school, said the school’s principal determined students at the school were underimmunized. The school began seeking community health care partnerships.
“The West End Medical Center started bringing their mobile center to Lake Forest, and the grant grew from that initiative,” Cox said at the board’s Feb. 21 meeting.
She said the need for health care at other schools in the system had been identified, but that the pilot program will be at Lake Forest only.
According to a parental survey conducted by the school about two years ago, 77 percent of Lake Forest parents reported having a difficult time obtaining health care.
Only students attending Lake Forest will be treated at the center, and Cox said no medication will be dispensed there, only prescriptions written.
According to Susan Hale, a spokesperson for the school system, eligibility will be determined by West End Medical professionals. Hale said the proposed staff will include four medical personnel.
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