Michigan Evaluation of School-Based Health: The MESH Project

Year Awarded: 2006
Project Leaders:
Miles McNall, University Outreach & Engagement; Patricia Farrell, University Outreach & Engagement; Celeste Sturdevant Reed, University Outreach & Engagement; Brian Mavis, Office of Medical Education and Research; Laura Bates, University Outreach & Engagement; Michigan Department of Community Health; School-Based Health Centers

Project Description:
School-based and school-linked health centers (SB/SLHCs) are a promising approach for providing a wide range of physical and mental health services to school-aged children. Because they bring healthcare services directly to the locations where school-aged children spend a majority of their waking hours, school-based health centers may be an effective approach to providing services to those children who would otherwise be prevented form accessing healthcare by such barriers as poverty, lack of health insurance, or the declining number of providers willing to accept Medicaid.

This project proposes to evaluate school-basked health centers (SBHCs) through three approaches: 1) an outcomes evaluation that assesses the impact of school-based health centers (SBHCs) on the health outcomes, health care utilization, health care access, and school attendance of children, 2) a cost evaluation that assesses the impact of SBHCs on the health care costs of Medicaid-enrolled children, and 3) a process evaluation that assesses the degree to which SBHCs are delivering intended services to intended recipients, particularly the Medicaid population.