Adolescent Health Plan for the Application Year

Adolescent Well-Visits and Health and Wellness

The Title V MCH Adolescent Health and Wellness Program (AHWP) Coordinator will work with funded partners and community agencies to improve the health status of adolescents associated with diet, exercise, sexual behavior, nicotine/tobacco/vaping, alcohol, substance use, and mental health issues linked to depression and suicide. This staff will serve as the Title V MCH representative in a learning collaborative, led by the Department of Education, to enhance supports and services towards positive school climates, social emotional learning, mental health, and well-being.

Title V MCH will award funds to Carson City Health and Human Services (CCHHS), a local health authority in Northern Nevada, and DPBH Community Health Services (CHS) providing care in each rural county, to promote adolescent health through enabling services and provision of educational materials on the value of being adequately insured, importance of yearly checkups, health care transition, immunizations, reproductive health, nutrition, and physical activity. Education, counseling, and referrals will be provided to adolescents regarding alcohol and substance use, intimate partner violence, and depression. Both clinics will conduct workforce development using best practices for assessing youth-friendly clinic environments, policies, and practices, as well as health care transition. CCHHS will promote routine well-visits and health care transition information through Facebook and digital signage.

Outreach with DPBH adolescent-focused programs will identify opportunities to leverage efforts. Programs will share relevant materials and events crossing over into areas impacting adolescents such as, positive youth development and prevention of intimate partner violence, teen pregnancy, suicide, tobacco/nicotine. substances, and mental health concerns.

Suicide Prevention

The AHWP Coordinator will provide guidance and resources to further the goals of the Adolescent Task Force through the Safe Kids Coalition. Grant funding from the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, Statewide Executive Committee to Review Child Fatalities will develop Latino-focused messages to reduce adolescent suicide, increase crisis response teams, train key community members in targeted populations, and conduct an outreach campaign to educate and offer resources to schools and local communities.

Title V MCH will partially fund the Nevada Office of Suicide Prevention (OSP) for teen suicide prevention and systems-building projects. Statewide, OSP will train the Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) model and work on other school-based suicide prevention programs. YMHFA enables adults to better recognize and assist adolescents in need of intervention. OSP will continue working with the Nevada Department of Education (NDE) Office of Safe and Respectful Learning Environments on a multi-tiered system of support to threat assessment teams and practicing of protocols across Nevada school districts. Additionally, Title V MCH will support activities of the Crisis Support Services of Nevada phone and text lines to offer help and resources for depression, suicide, and other issues such as sexual assault and intimate partner violence. OSP will explore several upstream models of peer to peer supports to prevent mental health concerns, substance use, bullying and suicide to expand non-Title V MCH funding and support wider implementation.

Rape Prevention and Education Program

The Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) Program will align five- year project activities with the Title V MCH State Action Plan by designing safer environments and fostering economic growth for adolescent and young women. RPE will address shared risk and protective factors through collaborative partnerships within the Division of Public and Behavioral Health including Title V MCH, PREP and SRAE, as well as external agencies working with young adult populations. The program will support school implementation of new statewide health curriculum standards increasing socio-emotional skills for children grades K-12 to expand primary prevention and evaluation increasing community and societal-level changes shown to reduce sexual violence reaching the greatest amount of people. Goals for the coming year will focus on increasing the number of community strategies implemented, creating protective environments to protect against violence and provide opportunities to empower and support adolescent and young women.  The Title V MCH and RPE programs will exploring building evaluator capacity through shared contracted staff.

School Wellness Coordinator

Title V MCH will fund a new School Wellness Coordinator position to strengthen existing collaborations between MCAH and the Nevada Department of Education, the state Nutrition Unit, Immunization and Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion sections. Adolescent health and CYSHCN program core functions will include MCAH staff advocating for the health, safety, and wellness of all students and staff, including exploring opportunities to foster integration of intimate partner violence and rape prevention education and evidence-based sexual health education, as well as explore pathways to support school district programs supporting pregnant and parenting teens and healthcare transition supports and education. Collaborative efforts will occur within the Nevada Department of Agriculture and school districts to support the Nevada School Wellness Policy, and integration of behavioral and mental health through the School Mental Health Partnership.

Sexual Risk Avoidance Education and Personal Responsibility Education Program Programs

Additionally, within the MCAH Section, the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) Program outreach for trauma-informed care and positive youth development will be a priority. Title V MCH funds will not support SRAE and PREP efforts directly, but MCH staff will closely work on cross-cutting interests in positive youth development, teen pregnancy prevention, and outreach to high-risk youth.

Adolescent Physical Activity

Social Media

Social media campaigns with DP Video will utilize Title V MCH funds to provide public awareness about the value of increasing physical activity for adolescents ages 12-17 y.o. Messages targeting youth and their families will integrate physical activity with adolescent values.

Trauma-Informed Yoga for Youth

Title V MCH will fund the Urban Lotus Project (ULP) to conduct Trauma-Informed Yoga for Youth. The Teacher Evaluation Survey and Student Response Questionnaire will be used to ensure quality improvement and to assess the benefits of Trauma-Informed Yoga on high-risk adolescents’ ability to cope with stress and increase resilience. To increase the number of youths benefiting from this practice, ULP will expand into neighboring northern Nevada counties. Additionally, ULP will bring trauma-consciousness to all system levels of care through a professional development program educating on trauma science, nervous system health, and embodiment practices for front-line support workers, care providers, social workers, teachers, etc. across multiple social service settings.