- November 28, 2012
- Jennifer Salerno
The Center for Family Health is a federally qualified health center that operates three school-based health centers at the elementary, middle and high school levels in Jackson, MI.
The centers use RAAPS to gather the same risk behavior information about each teen and to ensure consistency among health professionals. This allows standardization of the screening so staff are alerted to risks and can give appropriate counseling.
Michelle McCormick, a 10-year veteran of the health center, became its manager last year. Amanda Topper, a physician assistant, is the primary user of the RAAPS system at the high school center.
“Teens don’t bring up issues of risk on their own; the RAAPS allows us to get inside the heads of our teens,” Topper said.
McCormick adds that “Kids sometimes will answer questions positively in the assessment and then may shut down when the counselor tries to explore the issue. RAAPS helps us identify risks that they may not have been able to share verbally.”
Topper and McCormick said the browser-based assessment not only uncovers health-related issues, it also addresses security, data management, teen history and reporting — without needing to do anything extra.
Topper said if the RAAPS tool weren’t available counselors, in spite of their training, might not always ask the same, complete battery of questions. RAAPS provides consistency every time and captures the data electronically. McCormick said the reporting is a must-have, saving time and reducing manual effort to prepare reports by age group for the school, clinic administration, and advisory committees.
Read more about the Center for Family Health and how they put RAAPS into practice by viewing their case study.
Contact us today with questions about how to effectively integrate RAAPS into your practice!