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Social Work Speaks Abstracts

Adolescent Health

In the past 40 years, the United States has experienced a decline in the health status of adolescents, even though deaths among adolescents are preventable with policy and practice that emphasize prevention and early intervention.

Approximately three-fourths of U.S. deaths among 10- to 24-year-olds result from four causes: motor vehicle crashes, other unintentional injuries, homicide and suicide. A major contributor to death and social problems among young people is sexual activity that leads to unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Other indicators for poor outcomes for adolescents are well-known. Among these are severe economic deprivation, community norms that condone risky behavior; family mobility; detachment of children from family, peers, school, and community; family violence; and family and neighborhood disorganization.

Yet, youths can develop a well of resilience and coping mechanisms for later troubles with assistance from the family, school, and peer group and through development of their own internal assets. These assets should be the focus of policy and practice grounded on research, based on population characteristics, and delivered through schools and other youth-serving mechanisms in communities.

Although the battle to secure a future for today’s adolescents must be fought on many fronts, a starting point is federal commitment—by broadening the definition of “medical necessity” in providing services to one that would encompass risk factors for later health problems. In addition, all public funding for prevention and early intervention should be provided universally, rather than on a competitive basis, and according to the needs of local communities. Finally, at least 25 percent of all dollars devoted to physical health, mental health, and substance abuse problems should be spent on research-based prevention and early intervention services. Furthermore, states should leverage federal dollars to the maximum extent possible to ensure that the roughly two-thirds of adolescents eligible but still not covered by the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) are provided with this health coverage.

Social workers can and should assume leadership to inform and educate the public; mobilize communities; empower adolescents; and develop primary, secondary and tertiary prevention strategies to assist tomorrow’s adults in developing healthy lifestyles and a positive view of the future. With assistance from federal and state policymakers, as well as local communities, a better future for our young people is within reach.