Features

BHS Health Center Holds Grand Opening for New Facility By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Tuesday February 01, 2005

A 15-year Berkeley Unified School District-City of Berkeley joint project that helped boost the city’s reputation for teen services has moved to permanent headquarters on the Berkeley High School campus. 

The Berkeley High School Health Center celebrates its public opening Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. with a public reception at its new half-million-dollar facility in the school’s ‘H’ building. It is credited with helping Berkeley achieve the status of “Number One Teen Healthy City in California,” according to the California Wellness Foundation. Berkeley has the lowest teen-pregnancy rate in the state and one of the lowest in the nation. 

Normally the center is open only to staff and students seeking services, which is why—according to City of Berkeley Director of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Vicky Alexander—students named the center four years ago as the top service on campus. 

“They like it for the confidentiality,” Alexander said. “That’s what made it a success. We work closely with parents, but there are clearly some things that the students need to be able to talk about in private.” 

Added privacy is one of the benefits of the new facility. 

The center opened its doors in 1990 as a mental health counseling facility through the city’s Mental Health Services division, and operated for most of its existence out of a portable building near the football field. 

Clinic Manager Ojig Yeretsian said the new facility has several more rooms than the old portable, and the rooms are more functional. 

“Compared to the trailer,” she said, “this place is amazing.” 

Medical provider Barbara Morita, who has worked at the facility for 10 years, said that the walls in the old portable were “paper thin,” but the new facility’s walls are soundproof. There are other benefits. “When it’s windy, the roof doesn’t shake over here,” Morita said. “The water doesn’t flow in through the windows; the bathroom doesn’t get drenched. And we feel safer in earthquakes.” 

Maybe more important, Morita now works out of her own office. In the old portable, she “literally worked out of a closet” according to Yeretsian. Another advantage in the new facility is that a triage room has been added. 

Berkeley High students can either be referred to the clinic or can drop in on their own. In either event, they get funneled through receptionist Berthean Coleman. Yeretsian says that many students are too shy to state their problems at first, so it is Coleman’s job to talk with them and draw out the nature of their concerns. 

“She determines whether they have a physical illness that requires the nurse’s attention, or a mental health concern, or questions related to sexual activity, or domestic violence issues, or other concerns, and then sends them to where they need to go inside the facility,” Yeretsian said. 

All services are provided to BHS students free of charge. 

Funded through various sources and operated as a collaborative effort between the city’s Department of Health and Human Services and the Berkeley Unified School District in collaboration with Children’s Hospital and in association with the Alameda County School-Based Health Center Coalition, the Center currently operates a full range of services, including family planning, STD and HIV counseling and testing, full medical exams, and examinations for sports team participants, a nurse’s station, two medical exam rooms, and a laboratory.