Midtown Teen Wellness Center

To improve young people’s access to preventive health care services, the Women’s Fund has developed a School Health Equity Project.

On April 15, 2013, the Midtown Teen Wellness Center (MTWC) opened its doors. This MTWC is the first dedicated youth-friendly health clinic in the Jackson area. Although parents are welcome to accompany their teenagers, MTWC will only serve teenagers and will be open from 4:30pm to 7pm, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. MTWC is a full service, nurse-run clinic associated with UNACARE and the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Nursing.

Youth friendly services are low-cost, confidential, and accessible to young people. A young person can visit the clinic for a wide range of services–a routine sports physical, a pregnancy test, birth control, and/or for an acute illness. All sexual and reproductive health services will remain confidential between the provider and the teenager. All health insurance is accepted. No teen will be turned away for inability to pay.

Appointments can be made by calling (601) 815-8230. Appointments are preferred. Walk-ins are welcome. MTWC address is 258 E. Fortification Street, Jackson, MS 39202 (next door to the new Dollar General on Fortification Street). 

Click here to download a flyer about the clinic.

This center is a collaboration of many organizations: the Mississippi State Department of Health, the School of Nursing at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University, the Women’s Fund of Mississippi and Advocates for Youth.

Why Young People Need Access To Youth Friendly Health Services

According to the Mississippi Youth Risk Behavior Survey (CDC 2011), 58% of Mississippi high school students have had sexual intercourse, and 12% had sex for the first time before 13 years of age.  The survey also reveals that 80% of students did not use birth control pills or Depo Provera to prevent pregnancy the last time they had sex. An additional 35% report not using a condom the last time they had sex. These startling statistics indicate teens are already making unhealthy decisions about their sexual health and not utilizing the preventive health services available to them, such as contraception. To improve young people’s access to preventive health care services, the Women’s Fund is funding the first youth friendly health center in Jackson–the Midtown Teen Wellness Center.The Center is part of a larger School Health Equity Project.

This Project will establish and improve school health services through two separate yet interconnected goals:

  1. use research-based best practices to establish a youth-friendly health clinic in Jackson, Mississippi (Midtown Teen Wellness Center);
  2. develop a survey tool and evaluation process to better understand what makes a clinic “youth friendly”; and
  3. establish a learning community for health care providers on best practices for making school based clinics more youth-friendly.

August 2012 Workshop Materials

Advocates for Youth hosted a workshop at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) in August 2012 for clinicians who work with teens. The goal of this workshop was to identify best practices for providing youth friendly health services.

The presentations and handouts from this workshop are available for your use.