We, Directions trustees, will book a Saturday to workshop this endorsed youth health plan. This plan will guide our future. With walk in Wednesdays and routine bookings, Directions provides a team of doctors, nurses, social workers, counsellors, youth workers, reception and management staff. The Directions team are kept busy.
Hawke's Bay youth health trends and risk factors indicate we have some challenges in ensuring our young people are well and resilient. Investing in our young people to ensure they are healthy now is so important to being healthy and productive as adults.
Rather depressingly our Hawke's Bay statistics show we have higher rates of teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, suicide rates, diagnosed mental health disorders e.g. anxiety, depression, smoking prevalence, sole parents benefits for under 25, unemployed, and involvement with justice (apprehension) than the national average.
What I also read with great interest was that over 40 per cent of Hawke's Bay young people tell us they feel they are not getting enough time with their families. Good old family meals together, sometimes it's the simple things that count.
Over the weekend I read an article stating one in eight pregnancies in New Zealand ends in termination. Obviously this is not all young people but this is concern. We all have a role to play to ensure our young people are safe and healthy.
However I must quickly add, the statistics are certainly not all negative. There have been some very positive changes with our young people.
Nationally, substance use is one of the most dramatic and exciting changes in the past decade.
Smoking regularly has reduced 56 per cent since 2001. Regular marijuana use has reduced 60 per cent and binge drinking has reduced 43 per cent.
In fact a visiting global expert on teenage health gave New Zealand a glowing report card, with one exception - our high youth suicide rate.
UN adviser Professor Robert Blum says "fewer Kiwi teens are drink-driving and smoking, but parents and teachers need to make them feel better connected. New Zealand's poverty levels too need attention".
Having being involved with developing strategic plans for our DHB, the key is the "so where to from here" or "what then is the impact as a result of this plan". It is all in the implementation. I sit with Anita Balhorn, main author of this strategic plan. We discuss that the key to ensuring effective implementation of any plan is leadership. I quote the caption on the front page: Strong leadership to commit to what young people want.
Ensuring our young people have a voice is critical to achieving effective youth development. Anita and I agree that this is not new.
However what we have not been good at as adults, is ensuring we follow up on the feedback and guidance we receive from young people.
For that purpose Directions has a Youth Health Advisory Group. Its purpose is to advise and guide how Directions functions.
Anita shares: "Those aspirational young people in our community will guide and lift those vulnerable young people. Investing in our young people will ensure that healthy young people will lead on to being healthy productive adults."
- Ana Apatu is chief executive of the U-Turn Trust, based at Te Aranga Marae in Flaxmere.
