Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hancock County School-Based Health Centers
SNEEDVILLE (Sept. 14, 2020) – East Tennessee State University’s Hancock County School-Based
Health Centers are celebrating 25 years of serving the Hancock County/Sneedville community.
Located on the Hancock County Elementary School property and inside the Hancock County Middle/High School, these clinics provide primary care, urgent care and mental health services to students and the community.
“For a quarter of a century, the Hancock County School-Based Health Centers have been a beacon of care for not only pediatric patients, but for the entire community,” said Dr. Wendy Nehring, dean of the ETSU College of Nursing. “These clinics serve a rural area and one of the poorest counties in Tennessee, so they provide a valuable service by bringing essential and affordable care to this population.”
The clinics were born from an in-depth community needs assessment that ETSU College of Nursing was invited to conduct in partnership with the First Tennessee Community Health Agency and the Hancock County Health Council in 1991.
In 1994, the College of Nursing received federal funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Bureau of Health Professions, to implement areas of need identified from the community assessment. Working in collaboration with the Area Agency on Aging, the Rural Health Consortium, the Hancock County Public Health Department and the Nolichucky Mental Health Agency, they identified the need for pediatric physical examinations, developmental screening, health promotion and disease prevention programs, mental health counseling, laboratory testing, and referrals and follow-up.
The Hancock County Middle/High School-Based Health Center opened in 1995 to meet these needs; the Elementary School-Based Health Center opened about five years later.
Federal funding continued to support the Hancock County School-Based Centers beginning in 2001 with $158,715 in HRSA, Bureau of Primary Health Care, funding for two years to provide funding for the Hancock County High School Network. The following year, $206,000 was obtained from the same federal source for one year for the Hancock County Elementary School-Based Clinic.
“We are excited about what is in store for the next 25 years at our school-based health centers, and we look forward to continuing to be a vital source of health care for the community under the leadership of Silas Tolan, executive director; Nancy Seal, clinic director; Sandra Marion, center manager; and the outstanding team in Hancock County,” said Dr. Roslyn Robinson, ETSU Health CNO and associate dean of practice and community partnerships at ETSU College of Nursing.
To learn more, call 423-733-2819.