After more than a year of planning, representatives from the Washington County Department of Education and East Tennessee State University have formally announced the opening of the community Care Wellness Center.
The center will be located on the campus of Boones Creek Elementary School and will provide developmental and behavioral pediatric services for children and their families in the Washington County School system.
According to medical director Dr. Patrick Stern, the staff will use a wellness approach to promote physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual health while addressing the medical, behavioral or academic problems a child may be facing.
General pediatric care, including well-child check-ups and speech-language therapy will be provided.
The staff will also network with local community groups and agencies, including churches, businesses, Boys and Girls clubs, the Department of Human Services and the juvenile court system.
“Wellness does not just mean the absence of a physical problem,” said Stern, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician at ETSU’s James H. Quillen College of Medicine.
“Children with developmental and behavioral problems may have a hard time learning as do those with a medical disorder. Through the center our goal is to help children become even better achievers in the classroom.”
Stern joined the ETSU Quillen College of Medicine faculty in 1999 as chief of developmental-behavioral pediatrics. A native of Tampa, Fla., he earned his M.D. at Case Western Reserve University and received residency training at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base and Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital. He also completed a child psychiatry fellowship at Hanna Pavilion in Cleveland, Ohio.
His book, A Wellness Prescription: How to Raise a Happy, Health Child, was published last year.
Stern noted that the new center will be used to train medical and health professions students and residents from ETSU.
“We are fortunate to have the Quillen College of Medicine in our community and welcome the opportunity to participate in this joint effort between the university and the Washington County Department of Education to establish the Community Care Wellness Center,” said Grant Rowland, director of schools for Washington County.
“Dr. Stern, along with his staff and school personnel, will provide a unique and valuable service to the children and families living in the district.
“In this endeavor, education and health professionals can learn from each other, contribute to core knowledge on how to best nurture children and benefit by sharing resources to better provide educational and pediatric services to the client population of our schools and this community.”
In addition to Stern, the medical staff of the Community Care Wellness Center will include Angela Willocks, who is a family nurse practitioner, and Cathy Wilson.
Boones Creek Elementary School is located at 348 Christian Church Road in Gray and enrolls approximately 500 students.

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