How can we encourage adolescents to follow healthy behaviors? What
ideas do you have for parents, healthcare providers, health educators,
media, society, etc? Please provide outside resources as well.
Teaching adolescents healthy behaviors can be a very hard thing to do. Most adolescents are very stubborn and will do "whatever they want" and not think of the consequences. They tend to follow a "trend" so to speak, which involves smoking, practicing unprotected sex, consumption of alcohol and many other malicious behaviors." In 2007, more than half of deaths among young adults aged 15 to 24 in NYC were caused by homicide, unintentional injuries, and suicide, and most diagnosed chlamydia cases were in this age group.Compared to girls in the US as a whole, teenage girls in NYC have a higher pregnancy rate."(City Health Information, 2009) Adolescents can be encouraged to follow healthy behaviors through being educated about the consequences of such unhealthy behaviors. I believe that health care providers should speak to them directly about the risks of such behaviors. Adolescents tend to keep such behaviors to themselves, mostly because they don't want their families to find out, or they don't want to share that kind of information with strangers (such as health care providers). Health care providers, or even parents , should find a way to bond with the adolescents and earn their trust. That way they will have someone they look up to and take the information that is provided to them seriously.
Adolescents should be encouraged to also check out the CDC ( Center for Disease Control and Prevention) website, and educate themselves on sexually transmitted diseases and how they can be prevented, as well as substance abuse and its aftermath. I know most of these are already taught in schools and given a sex education program, but that is the only way to be heard. It is up to them if they actually listen and take that advice. Parents, health educators, media, society can all have an impact on their life and their education but at the end of the day it is their choice and nobody can make their decisions for them.
References:
City Health Information. (2008, March 1). Retrieved August 31, 2014.
Hey Loredana,
ReplyDeleteI agree that health providers should build a relationship with adolescent patients, so that they can communicate the patient's health needs effectively. Also I believe that social media is a gateway for health educators to communicate to adolescents. Being healthy is the new fad according to Instagram, so it would be beneficial for both parties to utilize social media to access health information.
Thanks for sharing,
-Rachel Amadi
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHello Loredana,
ReplyDeleteI am teen parent and I too think it is very important for parents to bond with their adolescents. Bonding should start when children are born and it should continue as they grow older. However, that is not case for most parents and their children. Adolescents and parents grow apart and their children start to do things that they do want their parents to know about. I think parents, teachers, health educators, and society can help by instilling values in adolescents when they are much younger. As the saying goes, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
Yaweta.