Teen Dating Violence

Each year one in four adolescents report verbal, physical, emotional or sexual abuse from a dating partner

Have any of you had any experience with teen dating violence?? As my oldest daughter enters the dating years I cringe at the thought of her having to protect herself in this way. However, I know it's my job to empower her not only physically, but emotionally and mentally to handle the pressures dating brings. Every time I get the eye roll, or the "mommmmm" I want to stop bugging her about "relationships" but then I hear something like these statistics, and I am reassured my incessant bugging will be appreciated one day ;-) Right??

What are we doing as a nation?

There's a new initiative under way, Start Strong, to target 11-14 year olds to promote healthy relationships as the way to prevent teen dating violence and abuse. Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan are engaging teens, their parents, and program leaders around this issue as the nation commemorates the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

Here are some additional resources:

Choose Respect Initiative
www.chooserespect.org

National Domestic Violence Hotline
1-800-799-SAFE

National Sexual Assault Hotline
1-800-656-HOPE

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/intimatepartnerviolence/index.html

Today is World AIDS Day!

World AIDS Day 2009--As we embark on another year of fighting this dreadful illness, I want to emphasize how important it is to protect yourself. So, here are my little reminders:

1. Get tested! Many health departments offer confidential testing on a sliding fee scale. Alternatively, you can purchase a testing kit from a pharmacy and send in a blood sample for your results. For testing locations: http://www.hivtest.org/
2. Use a condom or dental dam during every sexual act.
3. Don't share needles.
4. Support the 33 million men, women, and children who are suffering from this illness.

We all need a little compassion, support, and encouragement from time to time--let this be their time.

Much love,
Faith

Girls aged 15-19 have highest incidence of Chlamydia and Gonorrhea

According to a recent CDC report, adolescent girls aged 15-19 have the largest reported number of Chlamydia and Gonorrhea cases (409,531) when compared to any other age group. More than 1.5 million cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea were reported in 2008. Even scarier than the reported numbers, these diseases may have no symptoms and often go untreated; however, they are the two most commonly reported in the U.S. African-American girls continue to be disproportionately affected by STDs than any other racial group.

Additionally, Syphilis, once on the verge of elimination, began re-emerging in 2001.

YIKES! What are we doing about this? Is abstinence the answer? Should we hand out condoms in schools?

What's your opinion?

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/STDsurveillancepressrelease.html

Mental Health Services for Immigrant and Refugee Students

Have you heard about the Caring Across Communities Initiative? The Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation awarded 15 projects a total of $4.5 million to address reducing emotional and behavioral health problems in immigrant and refugee families.

These students often have limited access to mental health benefits including cultural and linguistic barriers. If not treated, or identified, some of these conditions could develop into more serious problems in adulthood. Often times these problems are mis-identified as disinterested or unwilling to learn, and their schoolwork suffers as a result. Incidentally, the No Child Left Behind rules holds schools accountable for the academic achievement of these students.

Thoughts? Agree? Disagree?


Source: http://www.rwjf.org/vulnerablepopulations/product.jsp?id=52222

Stupak Amendment

When the House health care bill passed last Saturday did it come at too high a price?

The Stupak Amendment makes insurance coverage for abortion almost impossible to obtain for millions of women buying insurance plans through the new exchange even if they are purchasing the coverage with their own money.

Thoughts??

Gardasil Poll Results

I apologize for not keeping up with my blog! Life has been crazy, but I will try harder to post :-) Thanks for being patient....so much going on too with healthcare at this point; it's a great time to be in the field!

Thank you all (8 of you--and you are the important 8!) for voting on my poll on what you think about the Gardasil vaccine. The majority of you feel that you would like to see more information on the risks, benefits, and outcomes of the vaccine before deciding on whether it should be part of the regular immunization schedule.

Some news: According to the CDC, the HPV vaccine was monitored in 5 clinical trials with over 21,000 girls aged 9-26. As of September 1, 2009 more than 26 million doses were distributed in the U.S. There have been 15,037 reports of adverse reactions following the vaccine with 93% considered non-serious (fainting, pain, swelling, headache, fever) and 7% considered serious (requiring hospitalization). Additionally, there have been 44 U.S. deaths after receiving the vaccine.

So what about boys? Well, as of October 16, 2009 the FDA approved the Gardasil vaccine for boys as well. At this point, the vaccine is not listed as a required vaccine for children in the U.S., but it could be in the future. It's worth keeping an eye on the insurance industry around this issue as the vaccine is very expensive and at this point, is not covered by insurance companies. This could mean some potential divides among the "haves" and the "have nots" if we don't subsidize the vaccine. In any case, it's interesting, and worth taking a second, third, and fourth look at!


Source: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Vaccines/HPV/gardasil.html

Teen Pregnancy

Is having a baby when you're 17 a good idea? Of course not, but you can make it work, and you do have choices. Mind you, I'm not advocating for youth pregnancy in any way; in fact I work in an industry that attempts to do just the opposite. However, if you are a teen, and you do find yourself pregnant, there are resources for you, and additionally, don't let anyone put you down, make you feel inadequate, or stupid, or try to control your decision. Show them how smart you really are by sharing these stats with them........and know you are indestructible.

1. Are teens really the source of all unplanned pregnancies? Come on.......

-While the majority of pregnancies to teens are unplanned, teens do not account for the majority of unplanned pregnancies, and they do not have the highest rates of unplanned
pregnancy.

2. Are we talking about kids under 18 having babies when we say unplanned pregnancies? No.

-Women in their 20s account for 1.6 million unplanned pregnancies—54% of all
unplanned pregnancies.

3. So what percentage of unplanned pregnancies are actually to teens? Take that....

-Unplanned pregnancy is clearly not just a teen issue. In fact, less than one quarter
of all unplanned pregnancies are to teen girls.

4. And the rest? Hmmm......

-Nearly 900,000 unplanned pregnancies
occur to married women (30% of all unplanned pregnancies)

5. So, teens are just dumb right?

-Nearly one half, or more than 1.1 million
unplanned pregnancies occur to women with at least some college education.

Source: Finer, LB and Henshaw, SK (2006). Disparities in Rates of Unintended Pregnancy in the United States, 1994
and 2001. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 38 (2):90-96. Accessed 9/2009 from The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. DCR Report.