GALENA PARK, Texas – It’s getting easier for students at Galena Park ISD to get access to quality healthcare through the district’s partnership with Legacy Community Health.
Legacy has four health clinics in Galena Park ISD, three of which are directly on campus.
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That’s where Legacy Community Health stepped in and has been vital to students’ health and well-being like 12-year-old Donovan, a 7th grader at Galena Park ISD’s Cunningham Middle School, He’s shy, but his mother knew it was something more.
“He wouldn’t want to make eye contact with anyone‚” said Michelle Fout, Donovan’s mother. “He would just keep to himself and I can tell by his body language that he was uncomfortable. So I asked him, you know, ‘How would you feel about speaking to a therapist’ and he was open to it.”
Legacy offers pediatric, behavioral health, and even dental care.
GPISD is the only public school district with this kind of convenient, quality healthcare.
“It’s pretty underserved with regard to students and families gaining access to high-quality health care,” said Stephanie Ramirez, Vice President of Operations with Legacy Community Health.
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If a child is sick, with the parent’s consent, the school nurse can take them straight to Legacy for treatment and they can return to class.
“We can’t even begin to tell you how amazing this partnership is in sustaining our students’ health and their care and also being able to keep them in the classroom, which definitely helps us to support curriculum and instruction for our students, said Dr. Mechelle Epps, GPISD, Assistant Superintendent for Student Support Services. “So many times in communities such as ours, where our parents may be hourly employees, the fact that they can allow their child to be able to go to the clinic to see an actual professional in the medical field for whatever the services may be ensures that parents are able to continue to remain on their jobs and that children can remain in school.”
Since 2020, they’ve treated 35,707 students, their siblings and staff, including 13,767 pediatric visits and 22,000 behavioral health visits.
“On a daily basis, we will see visits for wellness visits. That’s usually our most requested type of appointment,” said Lorena Mottu, Director of School-based Health and nurse practitioner for Legacy Community Health. “This time of the year, we tend to see a lot of upper respiratory infections and colds. So not only are we doing strep testing, flu and COVID testing, we’re also helping manage their asthma.”
Behavioral health was one of their main focuses. They offer support, therapy and psychological testing.
“(We)provide that safe space for them to be able to process what they’re going through, their emotions, be able to learn the healthy coping skills,” said Eva Briones Fairley, Behavioral Health Director and Therapist for Legacy Community Health.
Those are the things that have made a difference for Donovan and his family.
“I think if a child is not at their best, they’re not going to perform their best, so it’s great that they have these services here for us,” said Mout.
“She taught me how to think positive or negative thoughts into positive thoughts,” said Donovan. “It helped me get more social and talk to people and be less shy, and it just helped me get through stuff at school and the future and at work.”
Dr. Epps with Galena Park ISD they now building new schools with Legacy Clinics in mind and wants to expand to all 26 of their campuses in the future.
