Agency partnership targets Tillamook teens
Lean times call for creative measures. So, to leverage their limited resources, three local agencies have come together in a partnership to prevent teen suicide and foster healthy relationships.
Tillamook County Women’s Resource Center has joined forces with the Tillamook County Health Department and Tillamook Family Counseling Center to present a series of classes to Tillamook area high school students this spring.
Taking part will be the Health Department’s Joellyn English, a public health nurse, who will teach about healthy sexuality; Daeh Christensen-Carney, from Tillamook Family Counseling Center, who will focus on suicide prevention; and Tillamook County Women’s Resource Center Prevention Coordinator Terri Niemann, who teaches classes in healthy relationships.
According to Women’s Resource Center Executive Director Kathleen Marvin, the project will leverage the resources of the three agencies. The Women’s Resource Center portion is funded by a grant from the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force. The Health Department will contribute staff time and Christensen-Carney’s unit is funded by a grant.
The series of courses will be presented as part of the junior class health curriculum at Tillamook High School and Tillamook Options Program. The course series is expected to fill an entire week of classes.
Healthy relationships
Niemann said she will cover such topics as bullying, sexually transmitted diseases, contraception and healthy behavior.
“I’ll discuss how to create allies … safe relationships with people who want us to succeed,” Niemann explained. “I’ll tell them what a healthy relationship looks like. What is healthy and unhealthy. I’ll also cover all the ‘isms,’ like sexism, classism, racism and talk about how they affect behavior.”
On the theme of domestic violence, Niemann said she will discuss the dynamics of power and control and describe the systematic power practices that most perpetrators use to control their victims.
Suicide prevention
Christensen-Carney said her part of the program is funded by a special State of Oregon grant she received to teach suicide prevention in the schools. She will be using a curriculum called RESPONSE, a program developed by ColumbiaCare mental health services that increases awareness about suicide among high school staff, students and parents.
Christensen-Carney said the program starts with a video in which two teens are featured. One sees the other struggling but is not sure how to help. After the video, Christensen-Carney will talk about it with the class and lead a discussion about how to establish rapport with someone who seems troubled, how to recognize the signs of suicidal thoughts and how to make sure the person is able to ask for help.
Christensen-Carney taught the same curriculum countywide last year.
“Most of the kids really loved it,” she said. “About 10 stayed after class to talk about people they knew, such as parents or a neighbor, they were worried about. And the teachers also enjoyed it because it taught them how to recognize the signs.”
Personal health
The personal health segment taught by the Health Department’s Joellyn English is meant to provide teens with straight-forward information about sexuality, health and body awareness.
“The kids are asking for this kind of no-nonsense, accurate health information,” English said. “We are especially interested in talking about such sexually transmitted diseases as HIV and Hepatitis C, both of which are on the rise again, particularly in younger populations. And, if students fear they may have been exposed to something, we’ll tell them how to access care.”
English said this is the first year the three agencies have worked together to present a unified series of lectures. She said the decision to do so was not only driven by economics, but also by a desire to increase the effectiveness of the message.
“We found we were not collaborating in the past,” she explained. “We would each give our presentations, but they were not coordinated and, in some cases, they duplicated each other. This way, we will work together, avoid duplication and each one of us will help reinforce the message of the others. We hope, as a result, we’ll engage the students more effectively and make our messages stronger.”
|
