Community Health Center Expanding to Shawmut Ave.

The second floor of the majestic former municipal building at the corner of Shawmut and West Brookline Street will soon be home to a school-based health clinic offering much-needed services to students next door at . 

The clinic will be operated by the South End Community Health Center, located just a few blocks away on Washington Avenue. Demolition on the space has already begun, and Executive Director Bob Johnson said the clinic should be up and running by November. 

During school hours, a nurse practitioner, dentist and two mental health specialists will be available to serve students who require medical attention beyond a trip to the school nurse’s office, which is just 20 feet away from the clinic’s future location. Students who may not receive medical care otherwise will be able to do so without leaving school, helping combat chronic absenteeism, Johnson said.

Among the 600 students that attend the Blackstone, medical needs vary from medicinal requirements to breathing tubes and intravenous units, Johnson said. 

“It’s pretty intense medically,” he said. “Certainly the need is there and if nothing else the need for dental care and mental health care is unbelievable.”

The South End Community Health Center currently serves 15,000 patients per year, a figure that grew a staggering 18 percent last year and is expected to continue growing. Due largely to health care reform and a shortage of primary care physicians, the clinic has taken on a greater role in the health of a larger population, Johnson said.

“Our mission…is to serve anybody who needs health care regardless of their ability to pay,” Johnson said. “We are here to serve everybody.”

In opening the school-based health clinic at 400 Shawmut Avenue, the organization is also planning to expand its programs and services to the rest of the second floor space. An exact plan is still being developed, but Johnson said the services would be geared toward children and families in the community. The clinic would be open during regular hours, accessible from a street entrance on Shawmut Avenue.

“We’re in a unique position to also see the general public in the same space,” Johnson said.

He expressed hope that the hybrid model would help the Center attract funding. Currently, funding is in place for the construction of the clinic, but operating funds remain a question mark, though interest has been strong. An attempt to apply for federal funding was derailed by recent budget cuts. 

“I think we will get funding, I think that’s critical to the whole process,” Johnson said. “Can I point exactly to where the funding is coming from right now? No.”

But the Health Center’s return to the building where it began 41 years ago is certain.

“We know we’ve needed to do this for years and this is our opportunity to do it,” Johnson said. “We needed to get out more, to serve people where they lived, to serve people where they go to school.”