To what extent are school drop-in clinics meeting pupils' self-identified health concerns?

Objective This paper explores young peoples' health concerns and their knowledge and views of school nurse drop-in clinics (drop-ins) held in their schools.

Design Cross section survey of adolescents using questionnaires delivered in schools to 10 per cent of the population, and school drop-in monitoring data from the Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Setting 11 secondary schools in a suburban south-east London borough.

Method Data from 590 11-17 year olds were used to determine their health concerns, sources of advice for health concerns, views and peceptions of their school based drop-in clinics, and attendance at these clinics.

Results Young people have a number of health concerns, notably in the area of inter-personal issues, emotional heath and well-being; however, few had sought help with these. Awareness of school based drop-ins was high but knowledge of times and locations was patchy. The droins were viewed positively, especially by users. Issues such as timing of drop-ins, their location and confidentiality were raised by students. Most consultations were dealt with by support or advice from the school nurse. Monitoring data suggested the service may be under-used but those who did attend often returned. Sixty-two per cent of students felt drop-ins were an important service in schools, this rose to 92 per cent among those who had accessed the service.

Conclusion: School based drop-ins offer a valuable service but need planing and promotion to achieve good attendance figures. A school droin may be the first time a young person has accessed any health care setting by themselves and valuable transferable skills may be learnt.