About NASBHC Advisory Panels

• Advisory Panels
• Advisory Panel Roles
• Advisory Panel Appointment Process
• Advisory Panel Terms

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NASBHC Advisory Panels

NASBHC Advisory Panels are constituted by the Board of Directors as a means of harnessing the breadth and depth of member skills and expertise to advance the mission of the organization.  The advisory panels are considered the National Assembly’s information and knowledge structure.  The current advisory panels reflect the organizations primary goals:

Government Affairs - to generate public awareness of and support for school-based health centers among federal, state and local decision makers and policy leaders.  Principle activities are to:

• Define critical policy issues that affect the allocation of public resources to school-based health centers
• Identify target audiences for education and advocacy
• Explore opportunities for telling the school-based health center story
• Direct the development of best practice policy and advocacy information exchange among, and technical assistance to, state SBHC association leadership
• Guide specific federal advocacy efforts as needed
• Organize program content for annual meeting and other professional development venues

Find out more about the advocay panel activities.

Evaluation and Quality - to foster the development of critical thinking, analysis, tools, and data collection to support documentation of program impact.  Principle activities are to:

• Monitor and identify emerging issues related to the evaluation of school-based health centers
• Organize technical support and resources for quality assurance and evaluation
• Monitor the growth of the field and the evolution of the model
• Engage the health care research and quality communities in supporting school-based health care evaluation and research
• Organize related program content for annual meeting and other professional development activities

 Find out more about the evaluation & quality panel activities.

Technical Assistance and Training - to facilitate the implementation of the field’s best practices and critical thinking.  Principle activities are to:

•  Engage in on-going assessment of the field’s technical assistance, resource and information needs
• Guide the development of a nimble technical assistance plan that meets identified needs
• Develop professional development and continuing education opportunities for the interdisciplinary members of the school-based health care team.
• Develop dissemination strategies for information that emanate from the other NASBHC centers

Find out more about the techinical assistance & training panel activities.

Advisory Panel Roles

Advisory panel members have varied roles in the National Assembly, depending on current panel objectives and work priorities.  Panels and sub-workgroups meet as needed through conference calls; face-to-face meetings are convened when resources are available for panel travel.  All panels meet at the national convention.  Expectations of panel members are to:

1. Review and advise the NASBHC Board of Directors and staff on Center mission, goals, objectives, projects, etc.
2. Facilitate and encourage dialogue on important issues that challenge the field of school-based health care with respect to Center mission
3. Represent the needs and interests of NASBHC members and the SBHC field at large as they relate to Center mission
4. Provide intellectual capital to the organization by sharing knowledge and experience with staff
5. Assist staff in prioritizing Center activities within the context of available human and financial resources
6. Identify for the Board and executive director potential investors for unfunded priority activities
7. Identify and groom skilled leaders in the field

Advisory Panel Appointment Process

All National Assembly members are eligible for appointment to advisory panels. In making appointments, the National Assembly considers the background and skills of the applicants, as well as the responsibilities and needs of the advisory panels.  A history of active participation at local, state or national level is an important qualification.  Recommendations are sought from current advisory panel chairs, members of the Board of Directors, state association leadership, and program staff.  The National Assembly President makes the final selection of advisory panel members. 

Advisory Panel Terms

The advisory panel terms are two-years; panel members are eligible to re-apply for two additional consecutive terms (or up to six years on a panel). 

Advisory Panel Orientation and Support

Incoming advisory panel chairs receive orientation to panel work at the National Assembly’s annual meeting.  National Assembly staff provides support to advisory panels.
  

Advocacy and Public Policy - Current Activities

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2004 National Awareness Campaign.  NASBHC’s second national school-based health center awareness month was a success.  In addition to several successful state Capitol advocacy days, Congressional offices received postcards from students, teachers, parents and SBHC providers from communities across the country.  NASBHC created a number of campaign resources to be used by SBHCs, including postcards, stationery, sample letters to the editor, op-eds, press releases, proclamations, and other communication tools.  Many of the materials are available online: http://www.nasbhc.org/APP/Advocacy_Communications.htm

Federal Monitor.  At the start of the nation’s first federally funded initiative to support school-based health centers (known as Healthy Schools Healthy Communities) in 1994, eligible grantees included community health centers, university medical centers, local health departments, hospitals, and non-profit health care agencies.  On September 1, 2002, the Bureau of Primary Health Care informed eleven grantees that did not meet federally qualified health center standards that, unless they establish a governing board consistent with other federally funded 330 Community Health Centers, they would lose funding.  This eligibility requirement, which was not in place at the time of the initial proposal submission, was simply not possible for centers sponsored by larger corporate entities with established boards of directors.  NASBHC worked with the grantees collectively to meet with the administration and to build political support among their respective elected officials.  Our goal was to have the HHS Secretary waive the governance requirements (which he is authorized to do) for these 11 sites.  The administration was unwilling to meet our request and as a result several of the grantees gave their grants away to qualifying entities in their community (if they were fortunate to find an interested sponsor) or turned back the funding entirely. 

 The change has effectively precluded most of the nation’s school-based health center sponsors (hospitals, non-profits, academic medical centers, etc) from accessing the only federal funding dedicated specifically to school-based health centers.

Congressional Activity. NASBHC is working with appropriation committee members to include language in the committee report that would call for the creation of a program standard and application process specific to school-based health centers.  This has the intended benefit of giving school-based health centers a more equitable review from BPHC and precludes the SBHC applicants from competing with community health center applications.

NASBHC has been invited to testify at the House Labor-HHS budget hearing.  NASBHC Board member Veda Johnson will provide testimony at the April 20 hearing.

A bicameral bipartisan Congressional briefing on school-based health centers is scheduled for May 14, 2004 in the US Capitol.  Senators Lieberman (CT) and Collins (ME) and Representatives Mike Castle (DE) and Rosa DeLauro (CT) have agreed to serve as Senate hosts. 

EVALUATION AND QUALITY – Current Activities

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Academic Outcomes: Convene leaders in the fields of education and health evaluation, as well as national, state, and local funders of school-based health care, to examine if school-related measures can be logically and appropriately influenced by school health services programs, and if so, which measures these should be.  Disseminate white paper on academic enrichment and school-based health centers to primary stakeholders and policy makers. Disseminate print and electronic resources that will guide SBHCs in pursuit of academic enrichment measures.

Productivity in School-Based Health Care:  EQ’s productivity work group was initiated to assist in the development of school-based health center-specific benchmarks on productivity. Although in the early stages, the intended work group result will be a set of guidelines for SBHCs to consider when evaluating their productivity.  A meeting of the group has been scheduled for May 10 in Washington, DC. The product of this meeting is intended to be a draft template for SBHCs to measure productivity. The template will be presented to the field at the annual meeting and additional feedback can be incorporated. The workgroup group will reconvene in August or September.

Mental Health Evaluation Workgroup: EQ workgroup is in the preliminary stages of developing a template for the evaluation of mental health services in SBHCs.  Based on the success of the continuous quality improvement model for school-based health centers, the template will enable administrators and practitioners to assess the organization and delivery of mental health services by the interdisciplinary SBHC team – from triage and screening through diagnosis and treatment.  A multi-disciplinary advisory workgroup of providers, administrators and evaluation experts has been named to conceive and execute the template design.  After an initial meeting in January, additional meetings will be organized to advance the template’s development, draft an “issue paper,” guide the development of a pilot program, and finalize the resulting document.

National Census of School-Based Health Centers (2005-2006): NASBHC will conduct its national school-based health center census in school year 2005-06 based on data from the 2004-05 school year.  The census will answer questions about SBHC populations served, the scope of health center services, administration and operations, quality assurance and evaluation.  It will also help us document the distinctive enabling services that are unique to the school-based delivery model. The survey instrument used for the 2001-2002 Census is in the process of revision and modification. It will be pilot tested in the Miami/Dade County region in March. 

CQI-Tool:  The CQI tool program was completed in January 2004 and added to the web site for SBHCs to download the program at no cost. NASBHC will provide technical support to those who request it. NASBHC will also put the program on a CD-ROM for those who prefer to download it that way. Plans will need to be developed for continued monitoring and updating of the tool and the references.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING – Current Activities

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Mental health education training initiative (MHET) - A new quality assurance collaborative comprised of an interdisciplinary and geographically diverse group of SBHCs working toward increasing knowledge and implementation of mental health screening, diagnosis, referral, coding, and evidence-based short-term mental health interventions among SBHC primary care and mental health providers.  Teams from seven SBHCs affiliated with 5 sponsoring organizations have been selected to receive training and technical assistance from expert faculty and staff in mental health quality improvement that incorporates evidence-based practice.  Teams will implement effective mental health practice specifically in the areas of depression, anxiety, disruptive behavior, and substance abuse.       

Practice management Initiative (PMI) - A new quality assurance collaborative comprised of an interdisciplinary and geographically diverse group of SBHCs working toward improving practice management in SBHCs.  Teams from six SBHCs affiliated with 4 sponsoring organizations have been selected to receive training and technical assistance in practice management improvement from expert faculty and staff.  Teams will develop a practice improvement plan and implement work plans addressing two of the following areas: clinical productivity, daily operations, CPT/ICD-9/DSM-IV coding, billing and collections, operations/practice management policies and procedures, primary care and mental health integration team building, and/or patient care documentation.     

Asthma Workgroup –In early 2004, the National Assembly published “the Green Zone” an asthma tool kit for elementary school-based health centers.  Two hundred kits have been distributed to elementary SBHCs and a web-based version of the tool kit is available on the NASBHC website at http://www.nasbhc.org/TAT/TAT%20Asthma%20toolkit.pdf.  NASBHC has received positive feedback from “Green Zone” tool kit recipients who completed and returned tool kit response cards.  The asthma work group will be conducting follow-up activities with tool kit recipients including a survey on how they are using the tool kit, online webcast education on how to incorporate the tool kit materials into practice, investigate BPHC asthma clinical indicators and disease management process, and develop an asthma management framework for SBHCs. Members experienced and interested in working on this project should contact Jesse White-Fresé at jessewf@adelphia.net

Clinician’s Network –The TAT panel is providing leadership in the development of a web-based Clinician’s Network for primary care and mental health practitioners.  The initial plan is for development of a member benefit link at the NASBHC site to enable clinicians to communicate problems, ideas, solutions, and share expertise around specific clinical topics. If you have experience or interest in this project, contact the TAT panel chair Lisa Kimmey Walker at Lisa_Kimmey-Walker@mhhs.org

Obesity Workgroup –This workgroup is developing a framework for the role of SBHCs in the management of overweight children in schools.  Planned activities include: conducting a literature review to identify most recent evidence-based and promising practices, setting goals, identifying core competencies, and designing content areas. They plan to work collaboratively with the evaluation and quality panel to develop partnerships with health and research organizations, design an evaluation process, and implement a nationwide pilot project in SBHCs.  Any members experienced and interested in working on this project should contact Barbara Ford at barbaraaford@msn.com

Convention Program Development – This workgroup in collaboration with a host committee from the convention locale and panel leaders are responsible for the program content of the annual convention.  Activities include developing call for abstracts, reviewing abstracts, pre-conference and commissioned sessions, securing presenters, publishing program, continuing education, marketing program, poster review, facilitating sessions, entertainment, and youth involvement.  The 2005 convention will be held in Providence, Rhode Island.   

State Association Support and Technical Assistance - Throughout the year, NASBHC provided technical support to state school-based health care associations.  Monthly network calls were held for state association leadership.  The network helped to plan the national awareness campaign, establish federal policy goals for NASBHC, and assist each other in the development of their own advocacy and communications strategies.  The network was also instrumental in the success of the Capitol Hill visits during the 2003 national convention.  State leaders promoted the visits among members and in many instances took the lead in organizing the visits and Congressional communication.