NPM 9:  Percent of adolescents, ages 12 through 17, who are bullied or who bully others

The Adolescent Health Coordinators will continue to coordinate and meet with the Adolescent Health Collaborative on a quarterly basis.  The collaborative discusses several topics and events specific to adolescents which includes bullying, suicide, and mental health.

The BFH Adolescent Health staff will continue to maintain an interactive tool for school nurses in Iowa related to adolescent health issues that includes bullying and suicide information and resources with state-specific data as a way to address the life course indicators. Staff will continue to work with the Iowa Department of Education to assess training and/or technical assistance needs in this area.

The Adolescent Health team will continue collaboration with the Department of Education to promote the Adolescent Health Google site and update content as requested.

PREP grantees will continue to address mental health and suicide prevention through programming with Iowa youth as part of the Adulthood Preparation Subjects requirements through the federal grant.

Using the HRSA Maternal & Child Health “Bullying Prevention, Change Package and Driver Diagram” Iowa’s Title V staff team identified two primary and secondary drivers that would advance state-level work in Iowa’s bullying prevention program. During the next year, Iowa’s project will focus on:

• Creating strong partnerships across agencies and other programs and organizations to support the development of statewide activities to address bullying prevention.

• Partnering with Iowa’s Child Death Review Team (CDRT) to ensure that bullying is considered during the initial death investigation across all law enforcement and emergency first responder units and during the subsequent review of child deaths. It is necessary that team members are aware of evidence-based bullying prevention strategies. This partnership will address the need for additional investigation information from law enforcement (questioning friends and acquaintances) when working a child/adolescent suicide scene. The child death intake/summary booklet identifies both "bullying as a perpetrator" and bullying as a victim" as options to report upon intake. However, if there is no mention of bullying in the medical and law enforcement records reviewed, those options are left blank. The CDRT used to send a questionnaire to schools to complete when a school aged child committed suicide. However, the information returned from the schools lacked information related directly to bullying. As a result, the CDRT stopped sending the questionnaire.

• Actively engage health care professionals in bullying prevention to reduce the adverse health outcomes (physical and psychosocial) associated with bullying.

• Collaborating with state chapters and professional associations of healthcare providers (Iowa Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics) to develop and provide information and continuing education on bullying prevention to their members.

Iowa is participating in the Child Safety Learning Collaborative (CSLC), which provides technical assistance to Iowa's bullying prevention program in selecting an evidence based curriculum. Iowa intends to use a curriculum that uses a public health approach and by improving real-time data collection, Iowa's bullying prevention program could potentially make substantial advances promoting evidence-driven bullying prevention strategies and prevent childhood injuries.  

NPM 10:  Percent of adolescents, ages 12 through 17, with a preventive visit in the past year

The Bureau of Family Health is collaborating with the Division of Tobacco Use Prevention and Control and Division of Behavioral Health/Bureau of Substance Abuse to develop and administer a Young Adult Survey to Iowans ages 18-24 through a formal structured process. The purpose of the survey is to better understand young Iowans’ experiences and behaviors around alcohol use, drug use, tobacco use, intimate partner violence, mental and physical health and sexual health.

Iowa currently does not have a survey that specifically collects data on young adults ages 18-24. The Young Adult survey would be a mechanism to better understand the experiences and behaviors for this population and the disparities and health inequities that lead to poor health outcomes and impact people across their lifespan. Data will be used to inform planning and service provision in multiple areas including physical and mental health, substance use, tobacco, unintended pregnancies, and violence prevention. The Center for Social and Behavioral Research at the University of Northern Iowa will provide summary data as well as a report to the Department at the conclusion of the project, including recommendations for any future Young Adult Surveys. The Department will analyze the report to inform and continuously improve prevention approaches. The data will be shared within IDPH, including the IDPH Adolescent Health Collaborate, as multiple programs reach all or a portion of this target population, local partners such as MCAH agencies, community colleges, universities and workforce development centers. The data could be a mechanism to inform effective messaging and the modes in which to provide those messages. The Adolescent Health team is collecting county level data with the intent to create an Adolescent Health profile for all 99 Iowa counties.  The data being collected includes: race/ethnicity, poverty rate, teen birth rate, chlamydia rate, substance use, tobacco use, and protective factors.

The Department will distribute the Adolescent Health Profiles with state level partners such as the Department of Human Services Community Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program and the School Nurse Consultant within the Iowa Department of Education and with local partners such as MCAH agencies and PREP and SRAE Contractors.

The Adolescent Health team will continue collaboration with the Department of Education to promote the Adolescent Health Google site and update content as requested.

State Title V staff will continue to collaborate with school nurses, local Title V maternal, child and Adolescent health (MCAH) agencies, MCOs, providers and other youth serving organizations in the state to increase awareness about the importance of the adolescent well-visit.

SPM 5:  Percent of adults aged 18-24 who report being physically active

State Title V staff will continue to monitor and contribute to the IDPH strategic plan around the topic of obesity and physical activity.

The Adolescent Health team will continue collaboration with the Department of Education to finalize and launch the Adolescent Health Google Site.  Physical Activity, Nutrition and Obesity will be included on this site.

Teen Health Week is a global initiative to raise awareness of the unique health issues facing teens all over the world. Through a wide variety of local, state, national, and international programs and activities, Teen Health Week encourages teens to take charge of their physical and mental health to facilitate healthy habits they will carry with them throughout their lives. During Teen Health Week, the Adolescent Health team in collaboration with program staff within the Department will create and post positive health messages via Iowa Department of Public Health social media channels. The health topics include; Gender and Sexual Development, Nutrition 5-2-1-0, Oral Health, Preventative Care and Vaccines, Violence and Mental Health and Substance Use and Misuse.