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The Clarke Middle Health Center officially has a new home. With construction on the middle school complete, the health center moved into its new brick-and-mortar space in January and held a ribbon cutting celebration for community partners and constituents on May 1.

At 4,000 square feet, the new location for the center brings opportunities to better serve its patients. In addition to more exam rooms, the center features a larger laboratory, a dedicated space for counseling services and a new community cabinet with toiletries. The center also plans to add nonperishable foods to the cabinet in the future.

“This beautiful new space will allow us to continue delivering care, but in a more efficient environment,” said Suzanne Lester, director of the Athens Free Clinic. “We extend our humble gratitude to the Clarke County School District and the project team for this amazing new space.”

The center

The Clarke Middle Health Center is a school-based health center — an innovative way to deliver health care to students, families and staff while remaining on school property. Having the medical services offered on-site reduces the time students miss from class and the time that guardians miss from work to take their child to a doctor. It also makes health care more accessible to those with a lack of transportation.

“The center has allowed CCSD students to stay in school, CCSD staff to stay at work and for CCSD families to have access to better health,” Lester said.

Since opening in 2022, the center has treated more than 1,700 patients with the amount of care totaling more than $402,000. The free medical services are provided by Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership faculty, nurses and students. The care at the center focuses on treating acute illness and offering sports physicals, but patients can be referred to specialists for more in-depth treatment.

The center also includes partnerships with other UGA schools and colleges including the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, the School of Law, the College of Public Health and the School of Social Work.

“School-based health centers really help members of the community overcome barriers to accessing health care,” said Jeni Fitzpatrick, teaching clinic operations manager. “The Clarke Middle Health Center is also unique in that the care our team provides is completely free, which removes the financial strain that might otherwise deter individuals or families from visiting a medical clinic.”

Community partnerships

The center is a community partner site for the Medical Partnership’s Athens Free Clinic, which has been delivering free health care to the underinsured and uninsured citizens of Athens-Clarke County and surrounding areas since 2018. The clinic surpassed $1 million of free health care in February.

The Clarke Middle Health Center is not the first time the Athens Free Clinic and CCSD have teamed up to make a healthier community. In 2021, faculty and students at the Medical Partnership administered more than 4,000 COVID-19 vaccines to faculty, staff, students and families.

“We are so thankful for the services that the Clarke Middle Health Center has brought to the students, staff and families of CCSD,” said Amy Roark, director of school nursing services at CCSD. “It’s a wonderful resource to be able to access medical, legal and behavioral health services conveniently on campus, and we appreciate that, through this collaboration, CCSD students and staff can maximize their time in class, learning and teaching.”

For more information about the center, visit https://www.clarke.k12.ga.us/page/clarke-middle-health-center.

Written by: Lindsey Derrick