The doctor is in, at a high school ‘wellness cottage’
Florida clinic serves students, community
ORLANDO, Fla. — Nathaniel Coley, 19, first visited his school’s doctor when he had a cold earlier this year. Now she attends his plays and talks with him about life.
“Usually, you don’t see doctors who do that,” Coley said of Amelia Smith-Dixon, the resident physician at Evans High School. “It makes you more comfortable to have her as your medical doctor,” he said.
Smith-Dixon works out of the Evans Wellness Cottage, a clin- ic at the back of the school that is also home to a dentist and other providers. They also see patients from the community — no connection to the school required.
The clinic, which opened late last year, is part of the Evans Community School, which since 2012 has provided a support system for students and residents of the Pine Hills community (a low-income unincorporated subdivision of Orlando) that includes mentoring, afterschool programs, continuing education and health services.
Other Central Florida schools also are working to increase the availability of medical care on campus. The most recent calculation by the Association of School Nurses ranked Florida’s student-to-nurse ratio 48th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Ten Orange County schools now have nurse practitioners in clinics funded through partnerships. Some schools also offer preventive dental care. And Orange schools have been adding nurses, many with funds from outside donors.
In other counties RNs train nonmedical personnel in schools to provide health care and also supervise nonmedical staff who dispense medicine and bandages.
But only Evans High has a doctor. Smith-Dixon has become
part of the Evans community, attending games, interacting with parents and visiting the student Bible study group.
“Teenagers in general tend to not want to talk to adults,” she said. “If they see you as a person, not as a doctor, you can talk to them and help them that way.”
Smith-Dixon has been on campus for nearly a year, but now the clinic has its own space.
Located in a double-wide portable classroom, the cottage houses exam rooms for Smith-Dixon as well as a licensed practical nurse, a medical assistant, a dentist, two dental assistants and clerical staff. A mental-health counselor is expected to move in soon.
“We don’t turn anyone away,” said Tasha Casaccio, marketing manager with Central Florida Family Health Center, which provides the medical personnel. Community members, including those from beyond Pine Hills, enter the facility from the public entrance. Students come in through a door that’s inside the school gates.
The clinic takes Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance, and offers care on a sliding scale for those without insurance. Dental care is available for community members up to age 20, Evans students and staff.
Jarvis Wheeler, director of the Evans Community School, was the first patient in dentist Michelle Aliotti’s chair recently.
“I was one of those students who didn’t go to the dentist ’til high school,” said Wheeler, who attended Evans and graduated from Dr. Phillips High. He had let his dental health take a back seat recently, and Aliotti taught him how to brush more effectively.
Evans principal Jenny Gibson-Link h said some of the stu- dents who have made appointments to see Smith-Dixon had never been to a doctor before.
Theresa Civil, an Evans junior, said having a doctor on campus makes it easier to get prompt health care.
“Since my mother works morning to night, she would have to take time off to take me,” said Theresa, 17. With a clinic on campus, “I can come during school or after school,” she said.
And Coley said having a doctor on campus helps his academics, too.
“I can get that issue done, as far as health, and concentrate better in school,” he said.