Health Clinic Opens at O. Perry Walker
LSU, charter schools offer outpatient care

November 1 , 2007
Michael Molaison
The Times Picayune

After more than a year without a health care clinic, the Algiers Charter Schools Association and O. Perry Walker High School have reopened a clinic to support the health needs of its students.

On Oct. 17, the LSU Interim Hospital held the grand reopening for the outpatient health care clinic at Walker. The clinic will provide comprehensive health care services to students on-site and in collaboration with other health care providers.

ACSA spokesman David Grubb said the clinic previously was hosted by the city of New Orleans, but was closed in September 2006. "Due to their unwillingness to indemnify ACSA for liability associated with the clinic, we were regrettably forced to ask them to shut down."

\Since that time, Walker, like most public schools, relied on its school nurse and social workers for student services.

Walker Principal Mary Laurie said, "I really believe that the young people that walk through our doors do so with all their reality: social, educational, mental and physical needs. We have to address all areas of development for our young people.

"Post-Katrina, we see those needs magnified, particularly for delivery of mental health services," she said. ACSA also reported that numerous students and families do not receive primary care, and as a result minor medical issues become more severe.

Laurie said school social worker Fran Purcell was a critical cog in helping make the dream of a clinic come true. "Fran and I have been working toward comprehensive health care since our tenure at Guste Elementary school over 10 years ago. Here we are now at Walker seeing the beginning of a dream."

The clinic is staffed by a full-time nurse practitioner, registered nurse and social worker as well as part-time psychiatrist and pediatrician. It offers services such as comprehensive physicals, sports physicals, kid-med physicals, acute medical treatment, asthma, diabetes and hypertension management, immunizations, STD diagnosis and treatment, mental health services and tobacco cessation programs.

Grubb said, "Mary Laurie was a driving force in obtaining the necessary funding by making a personal plea to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation regarding the needs of her students and this community. Her passion for Walker was one of the things mentioned as something they still recall about that meeting and a big reason they wanted to get this project done. This is a tremendous upgrade in the number of services available and the types of professionals that have been added."

Laurie pulled no punches to achieve her dream of comprehensive health care for her students. The school called upon 1976 alumnus Dwayne Thomas, now CEO of LSU Interim Hospital. Grubb said Thomas "really spearheaded the job and kept the ball rolling."

Thomas said he was grateful for the opportunity to serve the Algiers community and that LSU Hospitals is committed to bringing the future of health care to Algiers. Said Thomas, "Our entire community should be proud of (the faculty and staff at O. Perry Walker) and recognize them for a job very well done.

"In my interactions with Algiers Charter O. Perry Walker faculty and staff, they have consistently demonstrated a great deal of commitment and professionalism to the students and the community. They have created an environment for learning, and my hat goes off to them because the task was not easy."

Since Algiers has no hospital and limited public health-care facilities, ASCA expects the clinic to be a great step to address neglected physical and mental health issues that its students face. "It will reduce absenteeism due to illness and provide a safe place for students to go when they are dealing with some serious health issues as well," Grubb said.

In addition to ACSA, LSU Hospitals and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the clinic is sponsored by Baptist Community Ministries, School Health Connection, the Office of Public Health and the Metropolitan Human Services District.

Although the objective of the clinic is to provide services to Walker students, Laurie has a loftier long-term vision.

"If you see the clinic and notice its locale within Walker, it has an exterior entrance. It can provide services without interfering with the educational activities of the school. My vision is that it will be a full-service center that will provide for not just our students but also their families."