Concordia Language Villages

Healthcare Plan

HEALTHCARE PLAN
We want to provide a healthy experience for each villager. To accomplish this goal, we partner with you. You know your child’s health needs; we know the capabilities of our program. Our healthcare plan is designed to complement the growth and development needs of children and youth within normal parameters.

Is Your Child Ready for a Language Villager Experience?
This is an important question. Given our mission and the program that’s been designed to support that mission, to be a villager, your child should be able to:

Meet his/her personal needs such as getting dressed, showering, and eating;
Move independently from place to place; and
Effectively interact in our group-based and community-living environment

These developmental markers, especially the third marker, are critical to the villager experience. Your child will share a bedroom with several other people and be expected to effectively interact with others to accomplish all kinds of quests, from establishing cabin rules to creating skits to maintaining emotional resilience in our language immersion setting. Please contact our Summer Programs or Health Services office if you’d like to discuss concerns with us. We are especially concerned about youth with a mental health diagnosis; our program may not be a good fit for some of these children.

Health Forms
Use our health forms to tell us about your child’s health history. Our desire is to work effectively with your child, something made possible only with complete information from you, so please be thorough and forthcoming. The information you provide is shared with appropriate staff on a “need to know” basis. Please note the following:

Return your child’s four-page health history form, a required document for participation, by May 1 (registrations after May 1: return the form at least three weeks before your villager’s session). We need it early because information on the form impacts menu planning, housing, staff education and health center preparations
Make a copy of the completed form for yourself; record health updates between the time you send the form and when your child arrives at the Language Villages. Notify us in writing of these updates
Have your physician complete the optional Medical Recommendation Form if, in your opinion, it would provide our program with more complete understanding of your child’s health needs
Prior to your child’s arrival, healthcare staff review health forms and may call to clarify questions. A health screening is conducted on Opening Day (See Reviewing Health Forms, Page 24)

About the Villages and Your Child’s Health

We expect that your child will be healthy upon arrival and ready to fully participate in the Village experience. If there are questions or concerns about this policy, contact us immediately
We reserve the right not to admit a person who poses a communicable illness threat. This includes head lice; the Language Villages has a “no nit” policy
Our program has a busy schedule filled with activity. Villagers live with eight or more people in a cabin and their Village environment mimics what it feels like to be in another country. Prepare your child so these experiences are exciting rather than intimidating
Our program expects that villagers can meet their own personal needs, but we also seek to be as inclusive as our facilities and program design allows. We are particularly concerned that youth with mental, emotional or psychiatric diagnoses are ready for our program; please call Health Services to discuss these issues
The expertise of staff focuses on the target language, cultures that use that language and ways to engage children and youth in discovering the skills of global citizenship. Our staff from other countries may not be adept at understanding the subtleties of U.S. youth behavior. Contact us if you have concerns
Community living skills are new for many villagers. Your villager may appreciate knowing that his or her bedroom will be shared with many other people and everyone sleeps in bunk beds. Talk with your child about picking up personal items, the noises people make when they sleep and whether a top or bottom bunk would be best

Healthcare Personnel
Each Village has a designated healthcare provider onsite; not all healthcare providers are registered nurses. At minimum, a person with first aid and CPR skill is available when children are in the program

Healthcare staff complete an orientation that includes review of medical protocols from our program’s supervising physician, Dr. John Parkin, a pediatrician at the Bemidji (Minn.) MeritCare Clinic. The Language Villages’ associate director for health and risk management is Linda Erceg, R.N., M.S., PHN

Healthcare Facilities
In addition to an on-site Village Health Center, each Village also has access to a clinic, hospital, and pharmacy in the local community. These supporting health services (including ambulance support) are at least a 30-minute drive from most Villages.

Dental and orthodontic services are extremely limited, even in the Bemidji area, so be sure your child’s teeth have had professional attention prior to arrival

Responsibility for Villagers

Our healthcare staff assumes responsibility for your child’s healthcare after customs on Opening Day. They relinquish care when the child leaves the Village.
Villagers are responsible for self-care, including self-medication, while in transit between home and their Village.
Villagers who travel via plane or bus should carry a “just in case” copy of their health history in their carry-on bag and know where that form is packed. Parents are asked to contact the health services office if there are concerns about this interim time.

Scope of Service
The scope of service provided by our Health Center staff is limited to care of routine illness and injury; we do not have physicians in residence. We do, however, have medical protocols signed by our supervising physician so care for some common problems is available. We stock selected over-the-counter medications (see the list on your child’s health form), and dispense these as directed in our protocols.

The scope of care provided by individual healthcare staff is based on each individual’s credentials and the policies in our Manual for Health Center Staff. Your villager will be referred to the local medical community when need is beyond what your child’s Health Center staff can provide. In these situations, your child will be accompanied by a staff member who will remain with your child during the physician’s exam.

Communicating with Parents about a Child’s Health Status

Our Health Center staff will make every effort to contact you by phone if your child has need for out-of- Village healthcare. Because of timing and schedule conflicts we cannot promise that we will be successful in reaching you
The phone numbers you provide on your child’s health form will be used. Please make sure that we know how to reach you during your child’s stay
In addition to phone contact, it is Concordia Language Villages policy to provide parents or guardians with a written summary of out-of-Village healthcare received by your villager
We generally do not contact you if your child is seen in the Village Health Center for routine problems (e.g., skinned knee, sore throat, bee sting, overnight stay). We will call if we have questions, as determined on a case-by-case basis by the Health Center staff. If you would like us to do something different, attach a letter to your child’s health form explaining your alternate plan
A child’s usual response when not feeling well is to tell the parent or guardian. Sometimes children at the Villages react the same way — they write a letter telling you how they feel and may not consider telling their counselor or the Health Center staff. Talk with your child and explain that our staff are there to help. Instruct your villager to tell these people about needs so care can be provided

Care of Villagers with Chronic Health Concerns
We expect children with chronic health concerns (i.e., asthma, allergies, diabetes) to be capable self-managers and to bring the supplies they need to manage their diagnosis. Because treatment modalities vary, our healthcare staff rely on villagers’ familiarity with and ability to do their own treatments. Our healthcare staff will provide general oversight but they partner with the villager to follow individual treatment plans.

Asthma, Diabetes, Anaphylaxis Forms
Use the appropriate form to tell us about your child’s treatment plan. Special forms have been developed for asthma, diabetes, and anaphylaxis. These forms can be downloaded here, and mailed to us with the health form. We can also mail forms to you upon your request.

Reviewing Health Forms
Prior to your child’s arrival, healthcare staff review health forms and may call to clarify questions. A health screening is conducted on Opening Day that includes

a general appraisal of the child’s health status;
a request for updates to the health form;
collecting medication brought to the program;
determining history of exposure to communicable diseases; and
a head lice/nit check