Health department staff the facility is crucial for young adults in the Kingsley area.
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KINGSLEY -- For young adults, staying healthy is crucial, especially to keep students in school learning. That's one of the goals that the Grand Traverse County Health Department is focusing on with a new adolescent clinic for Kingsley.
"It is for any child in the area ten to 21. We hope to be open at least three days a week with a nurse practitioner and we'll accept any insurance or people without insurance," says adolescent coordinator for the Grand Traverse County Health Department, Martha Thorell
Thorell who is the the adolescent health coordinator at the Youth Health and Wellness Center in Traverse City, is also coordinating the new clinic in Kingsley. The state has granted $170 thousand to the health department for the clinic which Thorell says is crucial for the Kingsley area.
"There was a plan and grant awarded to the health department in the spring to determine if there was a need out in Kingsley and Kingsley is a medically under-served area historically, hasn't had any medical offices," says Thorell.
Parents and school leaders helped conduct a community assessment this past summer to prove this growing need need.
"There were quite a few needs identified: mental health, peer pressure, physical health," says Thorell.
Now, the new clinic will provide similar services like those at the Youth Health and Wellness Center in Traverse City and it will be accessible to Kingsley students during the school day.
"Any illnesses, mild injury, anything that occurs during school hours that they could come over and get immediate services and get back to school. Our goal is to improve the emotional and physical health of the students so they could stay in school," says Thorell.
The health department is leasing a building in downtown Kingsley next to the pharmacy for the health clinic. Staff plan to start some services in early spring.
