The North Country Children’s Clinic will soon be called the North Country Family Health Center.

Pending approval by the state, the name change will occur to reflect the agency’s new status as a federally qualified health center.

According to a news release issued by the clinic, the new name was chosen with input from staff, board, and patients and approved by a board of directors resolution Aug. 3.

The proposed name change could take months to complete.

Marketing Director Elaine P. Garvey said the public announcement this week comes during the celebration of National Health Center Week 2012, a campaign to raise awareness about the mission and accomplishments of America’s health centers as local solutions.

“We have a 41-year history as North Country Children’s Clinic, and it was important to us to incorporate our past as we look to a new future of expanded services,” she said in the release.

The new logo will resemble the old one, as writing will remain in the color blue and the shooting star will remain yellow. The words will just be changed from North Country Children’s Clinic to North Country Family Health Center.

Board Vice President Margaret Sorensen said changes occurring at the clinic broaden the scope of patients the agency can take care of.

“It’s not losing children,” she said when reached by telephone Thursday. “It’s adding adults.”

While the clinic primarily has served children’s dental, primary care and mental health needs for the past 40 years, it has offered limited adult services.

That will change come October when the clinic’s adult primary care clinic is to open at its 238 Arsenal St. office.

The clinic announced June 21 that it received a $650,000 Department of Health and Human Services grant that will fund expansion of clinic operations, including the opening of a site in Lewis County. The grant will allow the clinic’s site in Watertown and the future Lewis County location to become federally qualified health centers.

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