Clinical Advancement
How We Support Clinical Advancement in School-Based Clinics
Our clinical work focuses on supporting school-based clinics -- individually and throughout the statewide network -- in their delivery of comprehensive healthcare.
This includes providing clinics:
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Resources
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Training
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Technical assistance
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Learning and practice cohorts
This page includes resources for school-based clinics, and should you want more support, we also offer a variety of expert consultation and facilitation services for communities exploring, starting, and operating clinics.
Comprehensive Care
The goal of our clinical work is to assist school-based clinics to enhance their ability to provide comprehensive health care that is rooted in quality standards using evidence-based and promising practices.
Comprehensive care in school-based clinics includes:
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Primary care
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Behavioral health
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Oral health
School-based clinics work to provide these services in an integrated format, with collaboration between all staff to address the whole-person needs of the patient at a variety of visit types, and include preventive care, acute care, and ongoing care. Many school-based clinics serve as medical homes for the youth who access their services.
Resources for Comprehensive Care
Youth Healthcare Alliance has curated the resources below to support the wide-ranging clinical work that takes place in school-based clinics. We encourage primary care, behavioral health, oral health, and patient support staff to continue to develop interdisciplinary knowledge and share resources with your peers to advance truly integrated care in your clinics.
The Comprehensive Healthcare Integration Framework
Published in April 2022, under the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s Medical Director Institute, this framework offers a conceptualization of integrated care implementation across multiple domains and a scale level of integration for each. The School-Based Health Alliance held a webinar in July 2026 focused on applying the CHI Framework in SBHCs. View the recording and see the slides.
Screenings for Prevention Recommendations
American Academy of Pediatrics’ Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Health Care
This resource provides guidance on recommended screenings by age as part of preventive visits for patients from birth through age 21.
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The AAP also offers information for Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment on their SBIRT webpage.
Colorado Pediatric Psychiatry Consultation & Access Program (CoPPCAP) Resources
CoPPCAP provides free support to primary care providers to aid in the assessment treatment of child and adolescent mental health through phone consultations as well as ECHO courses, in addition to a robust selection of resources on their website, inclusive of their Colorado Care Guides. CoPPCAP is utilized by SBHC providers around Colorado and has a unique understanding SBHCs and the populations served. Contact them through their website, email, phone, or reach out to Rebecca for a warm handoff to their team.
Truth Initiative provides free information and resources about tobacco and nicotine use and cessation options, such the Ex Program, to youth and those working with youth.
SBIRT Toolkit: Adolescent Substance Use Prevention in School-Based Health Centers
Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an early intervention practice designed for use in primary care settings, most commonly to identify and provide support around substance use concerns. It can also be applied to other behavioral health concerns. Learn more in this toolkit published by the School-Based Health Alliance.
Free toolkits and curriculums to support education, prevention, and intervention for young people on the topics of tobacco and cannabis.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) Immunization Schedules
Change blurb to: CDPHE hosts information for parents and families as well as providers on current vaccine recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)'s Recommended Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule for Ages 18 Years or Younger.
Confidential Care
National Center for Youth Law, 2021 Updated
School-based clinics are subject to and follow the same minor consent law required for all healthcare providers in Colorado. This chart provides an overview of Colorado’s minor consent laws and does not serve as legal advice. We recommend all school-based clinics review minor consent policies and procedures with their operating agency to ensure compliance.
Messaging Strategies for Confidential Care
Youth Healthcare Alliance
This document provides important tips for framing and messaging about confidential care to communities and families as well as clarifying the need for confidential care (and why these laws exist in Colorado).
Trauma- and Resilient-Informed Care
Youth Healthcare Alliance strives to advance comprehensive care in school-based clinics while fostering trauma-and-resilient-informed care (TRIC) to extend trauma-informed work to include “what is right with you.” We support school-based clinics in modeling and providing care that recognizes the impact all life events, positive and adverse, have on the well-being of staff, patients, and their community. This work occurs at the organizational and clinical level, with SBHCs practicing these concepts in their approach to staff and patients. YHA has found two helpful frameworks for TRIC, Healing Centered Engagement (HCE) and Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences (HOPE). We continue to explore and share opportunities to learn about other resilience-informed frameworks, to facilitate a paradigm shift in healthcare to be inclusive of patient and community assets.
Flourish Agenda’s Healing Centered Engagement Certification (cost involved)
Flourish Agenda offers a self-paced online HCE certification for interested individuals. This in-depth program takes approximately 20-25 hours to complete. Once registered, participants can access the course for 6 months. HCE is about how to engage with youth rather than a clinical approach. It is especially valuable for those working with youth in communities that have and do experience systemic injustice and ecological harms.
HOPE offers a framework for exploring the presence of positive childhood experiences and aiding youth and their families in connection to opportunities to create and expand on those experiences to mitigate the impact of adverse experiences on health outcomes rooted in the 4 Building Blocks of HOPE: Relationships, Environment, Engagement, and Emotional Growth. Check out their HOPE for Healthcare Toolkit and their online course offerings.
Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child has produced this resource guide to share how protective factors within a child’s developmental environment can help build essential skills to help children cope with adversity and foster lifelong well-being. It is part of the Center’s collection of Resource Guides, many relevant to TRIC concepts.
Creating Trauma-Informed Systems
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Building a trauma-informed clinic requires multiple systems to work together and culture changes within the organizations involved. This website offers systems-oriented resources for healthcare entities, schools, and others interested in building and improving trauma-informed approaches.
The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement
Dr. Shawn Ginwright, Flourish Agenda
In this article, Dr. Shawn Ginwright introduces the concept of Healing Centered Engagement. It speaks to the limitations of trauma-informed care and offers Healing Center Engagement as a framework to add another dimension to trauma-informed work focused on strengths, agency, and empowerment.
