New Montreal pediatric clinic opens in Lachine high school

A new Montreal clinic is officially open in a more unusual setting — a high school.

The Rossy Foundation’s second pediatric clinic is now in operation at Lakeside Academy in Montreal’s Lachine borough.

Called the Heart and Hands clinic, children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds will be able to make their way to the high school, where they will have access to medical services at least once a week.

“There is immense excitement on all fronts for these clinics. The families are beyond excited to have access to care in an environment that they trust and is easily available to them,” said Dr. David D’Arienzo, a pediatrician at the Montreal Children’s Hospital and a co-founder of the Hearts and Hands clinics.

“The idea came from evidence and need. We saw that other countries had school-based clinics and they were effective at improving access to care and we saw that within the school system they needed more than just education to achieve their health and education needs.”

At the moment, the clinic takes referrals from teachers, principals, parents, and even the teenagers themselves from Lakeside Academy, as well as Maple Grove Elementary across the street.

“Eventually we are going to be having other services available. There will be a dietitian, a speech and language pathologist, an occupational therapist. So there will be a range of services that students can access on different days,” explained David Estok, the manager of the Heart and Hand clinics.

For now, the clinic is open every Thursday afternoon. Five pediatric residents from the McGill School of Medicine will provide various medical services to children under the supervision of two pediatricians.

“We see a broad breadth of pediatric conditions. Everything from asthma, obesity, mental health concerns, we see it all. And certainly within the population served, we do see higher rates of behavior and mental health concerns, which we are so privileged to be able to allow them easy access to care in a system that oftentimes can be difficult to access mental health services,” said Dr. D’Arienzo.

Estok adding, “It’s a model that’s been successful in our experience so why not try to reproduce that somewhere else. We’re very fortunate because we’ve had incredible financial support through the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation.”

But improving access to care hasn’t been the only successful aspect of this model, it has also improved educational opportunities for students in healthcare.

“We provide teaching for pediatric residents as well as students in nursing, nutrition, occupational therapy and speech language pathology. All of whom train directly in the clinic and provide care to the families and children who need it most,” said Dr. D’Arienzo.

“We’re very excited to be opening in Lachine and at Lakeside Academy. But we certainly envision extreme growth not only within Montreal but hopefully beyond the city and even province.”