Funded Projects

Health Empowerment for Adolescents in Toppenish

Project Year

2023

City & State

Toppenish, Washington

Program Name

CATCH Resident

Topic

Adolescent Health

Program Description

Problem: ​​The transition from childhood to adolescence is an incredibly formative and dynamic time. Adolescents are forming their identity, building important relationships with peers, and attempting to develop and practice autonomy. This is a known critical period of physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development. Young adolescents experience physical changes in their body through puberty, and also begin to develop the cognitive ability to comprehend the consequences of their behaviors and decisions on their future health (1,2). The surrounding environment including home, school, community, and socio-political atmosphere directly impacts an adolescent’s understanding of and interaction with the world around them. During this stage, many individuals engage in risky behaviors and/or experience adverse events associated with poor health outcomes in adulthood. As pediatricians, we play a crucial role in developing a safe and trusted relationship with adolescents, screening for unsafe behaviors, and providing anticipatory guidance or interventions to keep our patients safe and healthy. Pediatric primary care providers begin to promote autonomy with adolescent patients through the confidential interview which allows patients to build an independent relationship with their provider and explore healthy behaviors, safe decision-making, positive relationships, and mental health. However, barriers limit our ability to provide the extensive anticipatory guidance recommended, including limited appointment time and missed health supervision visits. Primary Setting: Our project, Health Empowerment for Adolescents in Toppenish (HEAT), creates a safe and approachable space outside of the clinical setting where students are able to explore health-related topics within the scaffolds of an evidence-based curriculum created by pediatricians using community input to ensure relevance. Project goal: Our goal is to help build a foundation of understanding and motivation around healthy choices and behaviors that can serve as a launching point from which adolescents can grow and develop into self-efficacious and empowered adults. Proposed intervention/ number of children affected: Through our discussions with local community leaders and stakeholders, we have connected with 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC), which provides free after-school programming for middle and high school students in Toppenish at Safe Haven Community Center. Our intervention will be leading 10 sessions with middle and high school students enrolled in 21st CCLC. At the Safe Haven site, there are currently 50 students enrolled for the 2023-2024 academic year and about 20 students are expected to attend after-school programming on a typical day. Each session will focus on one adolescent health topic and provide hands-on, interactive exploration. The broad categories that we have identified for our sessions include screen time, sleep, injury prevention, infection prevention, mental health, mindfulness, physical activity, nutrition, safe relationships, and oral health. Anticipated outcomes: We anticipate that after completion of each HEAT session, students will not only have a deeper understanding of the covered health topic, but also a sense of increased self-efficacy and empowerment in making healthy decisions. A secondary outcome is increased exposure to health-related careers and resources in the community, as students will have the opportunity to learn from and build relationships with pediatricians, as well as with community members, such as a dental hygienist and registered dietitian, who will assist in co-leading some HEAT sessions. These outcomes will be measured via pre- and post-surveys completed by the students. We will also make continuous improvements to the curriculum via regular meetings with 21st CCLC staff to review content and debrief HEAT sessions.

Project Goal

Through partnership with an established after-school program for middle and high school students in Toppenish, WA, our goal is to help adolescents build a foundation of understanding around healthy choices and behaviors that can stand as a launching point from which they can grow and develop into self-efficacious and empowered adults. Our project seeks to offer a space for adolescents to freely explore these concepts and develop a relationship with their health outside of the clinical setting and connect with resources in their community.

Project Objective 1

By August 2023, we will develop an evidence-based, community-centered curriculum that is interactive and tailored to adolescent experiences in Toppenish.

Project Objective 2

During the 2023-2024 academic year, we will complete 10 sessions lasting 45 minutes each with middle and high school students in the 21st CCLC after-school program.

Project Objective 3

Throughout the 2023-2024 academic year, we will assess the program by conducting and analyzing surveys of participants at the beginning of the program, before and after each session, and at the end of the program.

AAP District

District VIII

Institutional Name

University of Washington/ Seattle Children's Hospital

Contact 1

Kathleen Goodwin