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Tennessee’s Adolescent and Young Adult Health Program

About the Program


Tennessee’s Adolescent and Young Adult Health Program

VISION for TENNESSEE’S YOUTH and YOUNG ADULTS

  • All youth and young adults are raised in positive environments, with caring adults who nurture and promote their health and development.
  • All youth and young adults feel safe and supported and are positively engaged in the lives of their families, peers and communities.
  • All youth and young adults have timely access to appropriate, high quality health, education, social and other community services as needed to support their optimal healthy development and assure their well-being.
  • All youth and young adults thrive during their adolescence and early adult life.

GOALS

  • Implement strategies that enhance the overall health of youth, adolescents and young
  • adults, ages 10 to 24.
  • Promote services and policies that are formed from a holistic youth development approach.
  • Address health disparity issues among adolescents and young adults.
  • Create partnerships with local, state, federal, foundation, academic and statewide
  • organizations across a broad range of adolescent health issues.
  • Track and assess the 21 Critical Objectives for Adolescent Health, Healthy People 2010.

Adolescent and Young Adult Health program staff serve as a resource to Tennessee communities in addressing and assessing strengths and risks related to adolescent health status through:

  • Consultation and training
  • Assessing teen health status
  • Publishing adolescent health data
  • Promoting youth involvement in decisions and planning programs to address their needs
  • Fostering collaborations among individuals, programs and systems that serve youth
  • Advocating for the needs of Tennessee’s youth and young adults
  • Addressing health disparities among adolescents and young adults
  • Increasing public awareness about the needs and strengths of Tennessee’s youth and young adults

Adolescent and Young Adult Health Program promotes positive youth development, addresses health disparities and prevents negative health outcomes by:

  • Promoting good mental health;
  • Reducing aggression and violence;
  • Preventing alcohol, tobacco and other substance use;
  • Avoiding early initiation of sexual activity, pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases,
  • including HIV/AIDS;
  • Preventing unintentional injuries;
  • Promoting healthy nutrition practices and physical fitness; and
  • Increasing health insurance coverage and adequate access to health care services

Key audiences that impact teen health include:

  • Local government
  • Non-profit organizations
  • Health care providers
  • Educators and school health staff
  • Parents and teens themselves
  • Faith Community
  • Policy makers, including legislators
  • Business representatives
  • Academic representatives

Primary activities include:

  • Data collection and distribution through an adolescent health report, adolescent health survey
  • fact sheets, newsletters and youth focus groups.
  • Adolescent health training provided both at the state and regional level through regional
  • adolescent health representatives
  • Asset building and Coordinated School Health projects pilot program
  • Suicide intervention training in partnership with the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network
  • Violence Prevention media campaign and community forums project
  • Tennessee Healthy Youth Guides distribution
  • Healthy Weight Management for Youth Initiative through the Tennessee Healthy Weight Network

For more information, contact: Adolescent Health Director, 615-741-7353.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

The National Initiative for Adolescent Health web site provides numerous materials that promote adolescent health. Especially, helpful is the new guide, Improving the Health of Adolescents and Young Adults: A Guide for States and Communities (2004). This is the official companion document to the Healthy People 2010 21 Critical Health Objectives. It offers guidance and resources for national, state and local adolescent health leaders to undertake the initiatives related to the 21 Critical Health Objectives. Additionally, Chapter 8 offers a comprehensive list of federal resources. This information can be accessed at http://nahic.ucsf.edu/.

Tennessee Adolescent and Young Adult Health Fact Sheets

Youth Health Guides

Youth health guides are available free of charge as long as supplies last. The purpose of these guides is to inform young people about critical aspects of their health. Topics covered include friends and relationships (managing conflict, school and dating violence, depression and suicide), health habits, food and fitness, smoking, sex and safety and drinking and drugs.

A calendar, exercise log and space to list personal telephone numbers are contained in this guide as well as numerous telephone numbers to access resources.

Local communities can add a list of local resources to the back pages of the youth health guide.

For more information, call the Adolescent Health Program at 615-741-7353.

Web Sites

National

Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health
University of Minnesota
http://www.allaboutkids.umn.edu/konopka/

National Adolescent Health Information Center
University of California, San Francisco
http://nahic.ucsf.edu/

Search Institute
http://www.search-institute.org

State

Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network
http://www.tspn.org

Parents

American Medical Association – Parent packets
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/7312.html

Center for Health and Health Care in Schools – Parents Resource Center
http://www.healthinschools.org/parents/index.htm

Youth and Young Adults

4GirlsHealth
http://www.4girls.gov/index.htm

Center for Health and Health Care in Schools – teen site
http://www.healthinschools.org/students/

 

Reports and Fact Sheets


2008 Adolescent and Young Adult Health in Tennessee Report and Fact Sheets



Reports


Fact Sheets

Child Health Week 2009


Child Health Week 2009
October 5-11, 2009

“Healthy Youth, Healthy Future”

Child Health Day is an annual event sponsored nationally by the Maternal & Child Health Bureau of Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA). Tennessee will extend the event to a week and host Child Health Week 2009 October 5-11. Our theme for the week is “Healthy Youth, Healthy Future.”

The goal of the Governor’s Office of Children’s Care Coordination (GOCCC) and the Tennessee Department of Health (DOH) is to spotlight ways that Tennessee children and families can make healthy life choices. We are collaborating with a number of child and family-serving organizations that already have activities geared toward these topics. A kit of fact sheets, press releases, resources and ideas for activities is now available. Promotional items are available upon request to those agencies adding their activities on the Child Health Week events calendar on the Governor’s Office of Children’s Care Coordination (GOCCC).

For additional information on Child Health Week, please visit www.tennesseeanytime.org/gov/child-health/ or contact Ashley Barbee in the Governor’s Office of Children’s Care Coordination (GOCCC).

Contact information:
Ashley Barbee
Governor’s Office of Children’s Care Coordination
615-741-5192
ashley.barbee@tn.gov

For brochures, promotional items:
Olga Masrejian
Tennessee Department of Health
615-741-0319
olga.masrejian@tn.gov

 

Child Health Week 2009 Kit

 

RESOURCES FACT SHEETS FLYERS PRESS RELEASES