FloCrit’s Alethia E. Morgan School-Based Health Center Continues to Serve Community

The Florence Crittenton Campus always focused on providing accessible care for the mental and physical health and wellbeing of our teen mothers and their families through the Alethia E. Morgan Health Center operated by Denver Health and the Student and Family Support Program. When the campus closed in the Spring due to COVID-19, the need to provide that care was amplified. “Our services are essential to the community,” explains Physician Assistant Elizabeth Madrid. “People still need their vaccines, physicals, birth control, and other medical, mental, and dental health needs, even during the pandemic.” Health Center staff builds strong relationships with their patients—both FloCrit teen moms and community members who attend a Denver Public School. “These relationships are key because it’s easier to see a provider that you already know and trust,” says Elizabeth. “Getting advice over the phone is also easier when you trust and know the person already since you aren’t there in person with them.”

Health Center staff

In May, the Health Center reopened for medical visits; dental visits restarted in July. Day-to-day life in the clinic looks a little different. Health Center staff do sick visits (sick with symptoms that could possibly be COVID) over the phone or via video. The clinic offers COVID-19 testing with results in 24 hours. Staff now wears masks and/or face shields during in-person visits, and deep cleans rooms in between patients. Patients no longer “wait” in the waiting room; instead they are screened for COVID symptoms and staff brings them right to an exam room.

Nellie Taylor, the Clinical Social Worker at the Health Center, continued to provide mental health therapy over the phone. Nellie has noticed an increase in the need for mental health support since March. “Girls are having a harder time because they are somewhat isolated right now given the circumstances, which makes their children struggle as well,” she says. “They are needing more validation that things are hard right now, and that we all feel it and are experiencing similar anxiety about the future and about their health.” Health Center staff continue to do a great job of screening girls and assessing for mental health needs, and then making an appropriate referral to Nellie or the Denver Children’s Advocacy Center therapist with whom the Center partners.