KINGSVILLE, Tx — Being a student and feeling sick during the semester can cause a lot of worry. What do you do? Who do you call? How are you going to pay to get seen?
At Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK), students can cut back on the extra stress that comes with being sick while keeping their academic drive at a high.
TAMUK partnered with Community Action Corporation of South Texas (CACOST), a private non-profit that serves rural communities. This is TAMUK’s first time that a community organization acting as a health care provider is operating at a university to provide a full range of health care for students.
“If you got strep throat, if you got flu, if you got a cold, if you fall down and scrape your knee, we are here to function as any other medical facility,” Executive Director of CACOST Ann Awalt said.
The partnership isn’t new. CACOST was on campus but operated through a mobile unit to see students and other patients. Now, the doors are open for an in-person clinic.
“When you walk into our facility, it’s a true clinical laboratory and clinical space where it feels like any doctor's office you would visit in the Coastal Bend area,” TAMUK President Dr. Robert Vela said.
TAUMK also has quality mental and behavioral health services available for its students. Now with the new clinic, students can get more than just a quick check-up.
“A student might come in to be seen because they have a headache. Well our clinician is able to sit and talk with that student and decide maybe there’s underlying anxiety that’s contributing to that and because we are in the same facility, we can exchange a warm hand off to the other services here and vice-versa,” Awalt said.
Dr. Vela said keeping or furthering access to resources as a rural university can sometimes be a struggle, but it takes partnerships like the ones TAMUK has with CACOST that share a common goal to make that possible.
“Everybody recognizes that good health and accessibility to high quality consistent health care, there’s a straight line between that and academic success. We support that academic success,” Awalt said.
The university wants students to know that at TAMUK, students won’t just get a degree. They will get taken care of in more ways than just tutoring and academic support.
“This is a community and we are going to take care of your children. They’re going to get sick, they’re going to need someone to take care of them and the natural instinct for a parent or loved one is to get them. But we want to say trust us, we got your child,” Dr.Vela said.
Dr. Vela’s not just saying that as a president of a university - he talked with experience as a father of three girls.
“I’ve actually taken advantage of it (CACOST) with my own daughter who was a little under the weather, and we had an amazing experience. For a 15-year-old to give me a thumbs up? That’s pretty special,” Dr. Vela said.
The clinic is free for students. Faculty, staff and community members can also be seen at the clinic. It’s open Monday - Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and every other Saturday for half a day. Appointments and walk-ins are welcome. All staff is qualified and properly trained.
Community members can also visit CACOST’s other facility in the Spohn building which offers pediatric, dental and women’s services.
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