OAK HILL, WV (WVNS)– Over 150 representatives of the 215 West Virginia school-based health sites gathered on June 8, 2023 at the New River Convention Center in Oak Hill to revitalize their shared vision.

Sponsored by the West Virginia Primary Care Association, the theme of the conference shines a spotlight on innovations the various organizations employ to deliver health care to students in West Virginia.

The event is using the WVPCA’S twenty years of serving school-based healthcare as an example of how mobile healthcare can be beneficial to the state.

“School-based health centers, that efficacy of them, improving makes better students. So ways that we can help students if that’s through primary care, but we also help with other areas or if that’s through food insecurity or clothing or other issues,” said WVPCA’s President and CEO, Sherri Ferrell.

“Our goal is to take healthcare to where people are. And we’ve demonstrated that with school-based health centers: we’ve taken it into school. Now our next step is to take it into these communities,” said school-based behavioral health director John Kennedy.

Kennedy said School health care is inspiring a push for mobile healthcare serving isolated West Virginia communities moving forward.