Voting begins  Sunday, August 12. Voting will conclude at  4 p.m. on  Thursday, August 16 and Valley Health's Healthcare Hero of the Year will then be named during a reception at East Huntington on  Friday, August 17.

Children face many challenges as they find their way to understand who they are, manage interpersonal relationships, identify career aspirations and even the daily grind of making good choices. Most children are fortunate in that many are resilient and while they may grapple with developmental milestones, they navigate adolescence with some level of success. However, there are some children that are not as fortunate and become stuck at some point in the process of maturing into the successful young adults particularly those children who have experienced adverse childhood events. They are at a higher risk of developing behavior and emotional problems. Even though our children spend from thirty to forty hours per week in our schools where consistent adults have their eyes on them, the children often do not get the services needed to support their development. 

School-Based Health Centers are critical in helping identify these children who are not being successful in our schools and providing necessary services. Our teachers today are faced with more challenges than in the past and are being judged on test scores and academic performance.  While we work diligently to work with teachers regarding mental health issues and other barriers to learning, a large gap still exists in getting our students the help they need to overcome challenges. The latest research reminds us that at least one if five adolescents exhibits signs or symptoms of a mental health problem and there are significant numbers that suffer physical ailments that interfere with learning.

While we continue to promote a "whole child" approach to enhancing the success of our children's education, one way to close the gap is through strengthening the collaborative relationship between our schools and school-based health centers. Teachers may not know specifics about mental health issues, but they are skilled in recognizing when children are not performing to their abilities. It is imperative that a great awareness exist that there are partners in the building to address many of the student's needs and a process is known as to how to make referrals. Building strong partnerships is a win-win situation that has great benefits for all parties involved, including our children so that together, we can work to maximize their potential.

Want to find out more about how to strengthen partnerships in schools? Contact The WVPCA at [email protected] or visit our partner, the National School Based Health Alliance's website that has many resources. www.sbh4all.org. 

NIDDK has completed the third edition of a resource for crucial scientific information on diabetes and its complications:  Diabetes in America, 3rd Edition. This resource  features contributions from leading diabetes experts from around the world. A fact sheet is available here and the full publication is also available. 

NCQA updates the PCMH publication annually to clarify guidance and refine criteria expectations. PCMH 2017 edition, version 3 is the current version of the PCMH Standards and Guidelines; it is available via NCQA's Download Center site. Log in using your email address and password.

Highlights of the update include: