A new school-based health center has opened on the campus shared by Blue Heron Middle School and OCEAN K-12 School in Port Townsend, giving roughly 400 students access to mental and physical health care without ever leaving school grounds. The center offers everything from counseling sessions to sports physicals and blood draws, closing a gap that left younger students without the kind of on-campus care their high school peers have had for years.
About half of the students on the shared campus are experiencing poverty, and many live outside Port Townsend's city limits, according to Peninsula Daily News.
Port Townsend High School already had its own school-based health center, but middle school students on the Blue Heron and OCEAN campus previously lacked that same on-campus access, the report notes. The new facility is meant to close that divide and make care easier to reach for more students across the district.
What Services Are Actually Available
The center's offerings range widely: mental health counseling, immunizations, injury treatment, sports physicals and blood draws are all available on site, per the same account. Blood work ordered by another provider can be done at the center — sparing a student and their guardian from scheduling a separate appointment outside of school hours.
The center's staff coordinate care with community providers. Jefferson Healthcare donated the furniture inside the center, while Jefferson County's Department of Public Health provides its services, as the station's report lays out.
Part Of A Larger County Network
The Blue Heron center joins a small network of Jefferson County school-based health centers already running in Chimacum, Quilcene and Port Townsend, according to Jefferson County Public Health. These centers operate as a partnership between Jefferson Healthcare, Jefferson County Public Health and the local school districts, according to Jefferson County, and the county is explicit that no student will be turned away for inability to pay.
Students must still be registered with signed parental consent before they can be seen for medical concerns, Jefferson County says. That consent requirement applies specifically to medical care, separate from the center's broader mission of catching problems early rather than letting transportation or cost get in the way.
Counseling On Campus
A mental health counselor is currently available to Blue Heron and OCEAN students two days a week.
