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Jeff Chastain
Noticing a growing number of unexcused absences at Sale Creek Middle/High School, principal Jeff Chastain sensed that the students were not just playing hooky.
“We felt like kids were telling us the truth — that they really were sick, but they couldn’t go to the doctor because they did not have the resources to go,” he said.
A schoolwide health fair, coordinated by the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department, on Friday aimed to help school officials identify students who might benefit from a state program that assures early medical screenings for children with TennCare, as well as provide general health information to all students.
Many students who are eligible for TennCare, the state’s managed Medicaid program, may not be aware of the screenings they can receive free of charge through the TENNderCARE program, which provides checkups for children with TennCare from birth to age 20, said Cheryl Shouse, health educator with the TENNderCARE outreach division of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department.
Students at the health fair toured tables set up in the school gymnasium and listened to presentations from a number of health agencies. Speakers included representatives from the Army National Guard’s Meth Task Force, the local health department, Doral Dental and others who discussed gang violence, diabetes prevention, personal safety, alcohol abuse and how to create healthy relationships.
Students at the health fair said sessions on healthy relationships and peer pressure were particularly relevant to their lives.
“We don’t have a lot of violence and drugs here, but (there’s) peer pressure in other areas,” such as bullying, said Amber Smith, 17, who helped organize the event. “The sessions that we’re going through right now are really, really good and make people pay closer attention.”
Jessica Price, also a junior and president of the student council, said the event was “good for our school. It’s going to benefit the kids a lot.”
Officials from the local health department’s program to fight obesity, called Step ONE, also provided information about healthy eating and exercise to students.
John Bilderback, Step ONE program director, said he wants the health department’s efforts to reach all parts of the county.
“We’ve got to make sure we come out to the more rural areas of Hamilton County, versus just focusing on the city so much,” he said.
WHAT IS TENNDERCARE?
TENNderCARE is a program of checkups and health care services for babies, children, teens and young adults who have TennCare. The program recommends that teenagers should get a checkup annually from age 13 to 20 and see a dentist every six months.
Health care reporter Emily Bregel has worked at the Chattanooga Times Free Press since July 2006. She previously covered banking and wrote for the Life section. Emily, a native of Baltimore, Md., earned a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Columbia University. She received a first-place award for feature writing from the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists’ Golden Press Card Contest for a 2009 article about a boy with a congenital heart defect. She ...
