The Women’s Clinic at Graham Health Services opened to students this September. The clinic offers a wide range of services from birth control to pregnancy testing.
Debbie Beck is in charge of the clinic, as well as the new pharmaceutical program. The idea behind the clinic is to offer female students health services that were, until now, not available to them through the school.
Beck’s main concern is that the students weren’t using the health programs provided. When Beck came to WCU, she had an idea on how to improve health services. She wanted to give students something they hadn’t had before, quality health care and more varied options.
New Health Care Options
The women’s clinic is an extremely confidential program that will offer the female population of campus a better option on health care. Birth control is available through the clinic. Pills are $7 a cycle, and Depo-Provera injections are administered at no cost to the student except for the purchase price of the injection itself.
This program is open to students only and visits are by appointment. There are also a number of completely free services for the students such as pregnancy testing, and STD testing and counseling.
The pharmacy program was started in August of this year with the same goal as the women’s clinic, to offer better, more convenient care to the students at WCU. The purpose of the program is to offer prescribed medication to the students at a reasonable price ($5- $7) and a closer location than any of the local drug stores.
Many students who donut have cars on campus have trouble getting the medication prescribed to them when they are sick. With this program, the students can get the medication they need without having to leave campus. The program offers a number of medications including antibiotics, anti-fungal creams, and some stronger cough medicines. These are administered in small quantities depending on the students need.
Plans for the Future
Beck doesn’t plan on stopping here though. If the bond is passed at the November election, Health Services will be moving to the Bird building where labs and X-ray machines will further enhance services for students. They are also hoping to get a physical therapy department in the move to Bird. Although this would be a two-year process, Beck feels that it will make a major change in student use and trust of campus health services.
