TWIGGS COUNTY, Ga. — Twiggs County Public Schools now has its first-ever wellness center.
The school district built it from the ground up and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday to reveal it to the public.
The wellness center was created for Twiggs County students and their families, faculty, and staff but it is also open to the public.
It will offer services like behavioral, dental and medical care, all to improve the health and wellness of the students and their families.
There was a program before the ceremony where school board members, county commissioners and healthcare partners talked about the purpose and services offered.
Mack Bullard is the superintendent for Twiggs County Public Schools and says this new wellness center is easily accessible for all.
"An unhealthy child cannot learn," Bullard said. "We are excited. We have removed the barrier of transportation, the barrier of finance, the barrier of economics, the barrier of access, all of those barriers have been obliterated by having our school-based health center right here on campus."
The wellness center holds about ten offices, dental and medical exam rooms, laboratory rooms, a mental health counseling room and a therapy room.
Nurse practitioners, licensed therapists and dental hygienists are on-site.
Carla Belcher is the Chief Executive Officer for Community Health Care Systems.
Belcher says bringing awareness to the available services will hopefully engage the community.
"A lot of times, children especially in rural communities their parents might work somewhere else and so this gives them the opportunity to be able to see them right here locally and we'll be able to pipe the parent in virtually by using telehealth or telemedicine if they aren't able to be here," Belcher said.
Morgan Stinson is a Behavioral Health Director for Community Health Care Systems. He will be on-site working with teachers, students, and their family members.
"We want to build trust," Stinson said. "Sometimes mental health can be kind of scary, talking with a stranger, and we want to reduce that. We want them to know that this is just one avenue to kind of be your best self and so we're going to look for ways and strategies to improve your overall health."
In August 2022, Twiggs County Schools were approved for a $1 million grant from Gov. Brian Kemp and the Georgia Department Board of Education to start up their school-based health center.
Now that they have this one, they have already started to build another building across the street on Bullard Road that will soon offer community health care services and resources.