Students who may not have a family physician, an Alberta health-care card or possibly haven’t received medical attention in years will now have access to health care outside the doors of their high schools.
The Alex, a Calgary organization providing multi-disciplinary health care to vulnerable citizens, has launched the Youth Health Bus.
The first of its kind in Canada, the bus will be stopping at Calgary high schools to address both physical and mental medical needs.
CEO of The Alex Shelley Heartwell said many at risk students simply don’t know how to access adequate health care. “If you can take the service right to the students then they’ll actually come on,” she said.
Premier Alison Redford was on hand to launch the bus and said The Alex is taking health care in the right direction.
“I have to say that looking at that bus and knowing that there’s no barrier between people who are standing in this hallway and that door is going to change people’s lives,” she said to the audience at Forest Lawn High School. “We’re going to have to think differently about how we deliver health care.”
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