Teenage pregnancy was once acknowledged as one of the most critical social problems in our countr... Network on Adolescent Preg
These days, the issue is often overshadowed by critical hot- topic issues such as AIDS and immigration. Organizations such as the Suffolk Network on Adolescent Pregnancy-Long Island also mitigate the effects of teen pregnancy - but the problem is still with us, on a societal level.
Did you know that for every pregnancy we can prevent in Suffolk County, there is the potential to save $100,000 for the county in public assistance - in the first year alone? said Marcia Spector, executive director of SNAP Long Island. Given that there were about 1,800 adolescent pregnancies in the county last year - $180 million could have gone to other programs.
SNAP was created in 1979 by the county executive as the Suffolk Network on Adolescent Pregnancy. It was formed to look at what was then a growing problem of adolescent pregnancy. The blue ribbon task force - which initially included membership from a diverse group of schools, churches, Planned Parenthood, Right to Life groups and some pretty high level officials - is still meeting 25 years later.
When we look at what was happening when you first started and what's happening today, do you see any real differences in patterns or attitudes? You know the old expression: The more things change, the more they stay the same. In some respects a lot has happened. Back in the late 70s and early 80s, you couldn't talk about pregnancy, or even write the word in a grant application. You couldn't stand up in a school and talk about menstruation or topics that now seem so tame since the era of HIV, AIDS and the more controversial sexuality issues that have emerged. On the other hand, we're dealing with a very conservative administration that is limiting funding opportunities, and restricting language and what we can or cannot do or say to young people. Overall, though, as far as achieving our goal for pregnancy prevention, we have seen change. Suffolk County has gone from a level of 4,000 pregnancies in adolescents 10 through 19 to having now fewer than 1,800 in that group.
So what are the changes that are having an impact? How do you see demographics playing into this issue? The teens are practicing more prevention and they are getting more information through programs like ours and others. Groups of people change, though, and when the groups change, the issues change. Increasingly, we're looking at new immigrant groups, particularly Latinas, as being the most high- risk, most vulnerable group of adolescents for a variety of things, certainly premature parenthood. One difficulty with the Latino group is that there is no one Latino culture. There are close to 25 different countries where Spanish culture is predominant and they vary a lot. And what's okay to do in one culture is not okay to do in another culture. So when we work with groups on prevention issues, there is not one program that we can pull out of a hat and say, OK, this is for Latinos and this is going to work.
So how do you go about changing the attitude or reaching this diverse population, which doesn't have its roots in one place? It's very difficult. We are working with school districts that have high Latina and at-risk populations. While we have been very well received at these districts, it takes years to really attack this problem. And we're dealing with a lot of cultural issues that are difficult because there are conflicts with the mainstream American culture. For example, in the Latino culture, sometimes, when a girl becomes pregnant, she is expected to drop out of school rather than be in school and graduate with her peers. We know the one thing that's going to make the difference, particularly to pregnant parenting teens, is a high school diploma. In this current society, if you don't have a minimum high school diploma, you're not going anywhere.
Can you tell me a little bit about the specific programs themselves? We provide a classroom-based series, which we call Healthy Choices. It's a science-based program. We use the Health Start curriculum and we go into the classroom and spend a week teaching a variety of subjects designed to help young people become better at negotiating relationships, communicating, avoiding risky behaviors, resisting peer pressure and understanding how their bodies work. From that, we draw a group to work with after school in a much more sustained intensive effort. We help these students see that they have a future and articulate what that future might be. Many of them don't know what their options are because they have no positive role models at home.
Is there any other message you wish to stress? I think people really need to recognize the value of prevention - not just for this issue, but many social issues. Prevention is so much cheaper than not dealing with the problem.
This is cache, read story here