When making health decisions as an adult, we often call upon the knowledge and skills we were taught as teens. The skills we are taught in our youth are essential for ensuring we make thoughtful decisions as we grow up. New York City law states that all teens must take a health class before graduating high school. However, due to budget cuts and staff shortages, some teens are left without a comprehensive health education. Studies show that substance abuse, untreated mental illness, and teen pregnancy all lead to low performance, high school dropouts, and other overall lower qualities of life. The need for education is clearly there – 1 in 3 teenagers are having sex (40% without the use of a condom), 1 in 4 teenagers use marijuana, 1 in 6 teenagers have seriously considered suicide, and 1 in 5 teenagers binge drink. Without a health education, teenagers are put at risk for making uninformed health choices.
Food deserts, a term I had only heard of recently, is defined as an area without access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Instead, the residents in these neighborhoods rely on fast food and convenience stores, which offer few healthy options. As a result, these communities are at a higher risk for obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other diet related illnesses. In American, it is estimated that about 23.5 million people live in food deserts! More than half of that number is people residing in low-income neighborhoods.
Another issue, not only in NYC, but across the US, is doctor shortages. This issue confused me at first – how do we have doctor shortages when it is so hard to get into medical school? The problem is that many med school students do not go into primary care. Currently about half of our nations 830 thousand physicians are over the age of 50. These doctors, now older and on the brink of retirement, are seeing fewer patients, yet, the patient population is growing. We have a larger elderly population then ever before and under the Affordable Care Act, people who were once not insured, are now insured. There are about 30 million people being absorbed into the system with a shortage of 16,000 doctors.
As mentioned, health education is a serious concern for many teens in NYC (especially those in low income neighborhoods). Educating our youth can prevent them from making a series of dangerous decisions regarding their health. About a year ago I joined a club called Peer Health Exchange (PHE), whose mission to give all teens a proper health education. PHE recruits volunteers (like myself) to go into various high schools around NYC that are lacking comprehensive health curriculums. Each week, college students teach ninth graders one of twelve workshops. These workshops are designed to teach the students both knowledge and skills. The skills part, in my opinion, is the most important. We tell students that everyone’s definition of “healthy” is different and because of that they need to develop the proper decision-making, communication, and advocacy skills to decide for themselves what the best choices are regarding their health. In a perfect world, Peer Health Exchange wouldn’t have to exist (and it is my hope that one day it won’t). But for now, we need organizations like PHE to pick up the slack and ensure all teens are exposed to health education.
Sources:
http://www.peerhealthexchange.org/
http://apps.ams.usda.gov/fooddeserts/fooddeserts.aspx
http://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-03-2013/how-to-beat-doctor-shortage.html
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/02/opinion/gupta-health-challenges-2015/
Alyssa, while I do think Peer Health Exchange is an excellent tactic in educating the young minds of society on healthy living, I can’t help but raise a question. Why are teens not being educated by those who are being paid to educate? Peer Health Exchange volunteers are certainly doing a service to their city and peers, but why are so many schools unable to generate a health curriculum that can be deemed as beneficial to students? Kids are trapped in a classroom memorizing history facts dating back to the beginning of time (which some may consider necessary and vital) when they could instead be guided by professional educators on how to live their lives going forward. We have a serious problem on our hands as far as public health is concerned and the only way we can try to fix it is by coming to the realization that it is indeed a problem. When our education system realizes that this is a problem and makes it a priority, this is when we can move forward as an education system and as a healthier city.