Clinical Advancement
How We Support Clinical Advancement in School-Based Clinics
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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
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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
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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.​
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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. ​
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The Building Blocks of Behavioral Health Integration-Farley Center Practice Innovation Program
Published in June 2022 through a collaboration between the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus’s Eugene S. Farley Jr. Health Policy Center and Practice Innovation Program, this report is designed for Colorado practices and introduces a framework of care delivery expectations for behavioral health integration (BHI) in primary care, designed to align expectations across payers, providers, and patients.
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The Comprehensive Healthcare Integration Framework
Published in April 2022, under the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s Medical Director Institute, this framework offers an updated conceptualization of integrated care implementation from the original Framework for Levels of Integrated Care published by SAMHSA-HRSA’s Center for Integrated Health Solutions (CIHS) in 2013.
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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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Colorado Pediatric Psychiatry Consultation & Access Program (CoPPCAP) Resources
COPPCAP’s resource page provides access to Colorado Care Guides, designed to support providers managing mental health conditions, as well as a library of screening tools and other education and community resources.
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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.
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Free toolkits and curriculums to support education, prevention, and intervention for young people on the topics of tobacco and cannabis.
Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule by Age
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guide for health care providers to determine recommended vaccines by age group.
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.
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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-Informed Care
Youth Healthcare Alliance strives to advance comprehensive care in school-based clinics while fostering trauma-informed organizations that are inclusive of healing-centered engagement frameworks. We support school-based clinics in modeling and providing care that recognizes the impact life events have on the well-being of staff, patients, and their community while also identifying and fostering strengths within all of these to achieve healthy outcomes. We work to advance the importance of team-based care to address social determinants of health and the need for health education and patient support as part of clinic services.
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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.
