In the Arizona health department, the following are the trends relating to the school system, Arizona school teenage pregnancy health care, oral health tooth decay- Arizona school dental survey, Arizona state obesity data, Arizona school anti-drug trends, holding the school nursing seminars through the Arizona school nurse consortium and the school immunization programs. The Arizona Health Department also provide for the school immunization program known as the Arizona immunization program among others.
Teen pregnancy prevention program was founded in Arizona health department to combat the trend of school teenage pregnancy. Under this program, there is what is known as comprehensive sexuality education program that supports the community based efforts to reduce the teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases among the youth. Through the program, community based education is made accessible to the school going children as well as the youth. Funding for this program comes directly from the monies allocated to the Arizona Department of health. The program has contributed to a significant drop in the teenage pregnancy in the last three years.
The nurses thereby implement the program in the appropriate schools to realize the goals which are to reduce the number of pregnancies to teenagers age 15-19, to reduce the number of repeat pregnancies to teenage girls age 15-19 and finally to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers age 15-19 . The thirteen county health departments have provided and still providing comprehensive teen pregnancy with much money now compared to when the program began(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.), & Arizona, 1900). The community based organizations have shown great support to the program with many projects coming up in the communities in support of the same. The program providers have extended their roots to universities like the university of Arizona cooperative extensions, Maricopa. With the implementation of this program, it has been evidently established statistically that its outcome is impressing. The number of teen pregnancy has reduced significantly.
The Arizona school dental survey, through the Oral Health of Arizona‘s Children is a program in the schools that provide immediate interventions to the tooth decay problems. The Arizona Department of Health Services, office of Oral Health conducts a statewide school dental survey to determine the oral health status of the children after which they develop policy recommendations to improve the children’s oral health. The nurses therefore offer great input to the community by conducting the survey reaching the remote areas in the community(Arizona et al,. 1984). Tooth decay is an oral disease that has very high prevalence in the children. It is progressive and cumulative. It becomes more complex with time if not checked. The most demarcated dental survey was conducted in 2003; this survey that revealed that tooth decay continued to be a major problem for Arizona school children. Among the key findings were as follows; the country had substantial disparities in Oral health.
The low income children, Hispanic children and those children belonging to the racial minority had major and more dental treatment needs. Almost 39% of the Arizona third grade school children had untreated tooth decay. In response to this, the department opted for an expansion in efforts that would aim at providing more preventative oral health to the school children of Arizona(Arizona., & United States, 1988). There is also an evident increase availability of dental insurance to all children who are at high risks of dental problems. The department has also expanded the school-based dental sealants program to be accessed by all eligible schools in all counties and stress the importance of sealants to children in regard to tooth decay. Increased preventative care units to the communities within Arizona aimed to prevent adverse dental problems. The nurses attend to the victimized school children in the communities. There is also an increased access to the community water fluoridation. The outcome of this program is evaluated through survey. It has been established that tooth decay is still evidently pronounced in Arizona.
The Arizona Health Department has also obesity control programs to cope up with the trends of rise in obesity in the school going children. The program is known as the nutrition, physical activity and obesity program (NUPAO). The Arizona Health Department has collaborated with the Arizona Department of Education so as to promote the use of salad bars in the schools. In addition to the salad bars, the department promotes walking and biking in the Arizona schools as great modes of transportations for the youths to get to and from schools. This is perceived as an effective way that provide for a sixty minutes time of healthy physical activity.
The Arizona Department of Health Services has partnered with the Arizona Transportation Safe Routes to school program to enable them adopt and develop active school neighborhood checklist assessment tool that generates a score that will represent the ability to bike and walk as well as safety of the location of the school(Arizona, 1984). All these programs collectively involve the efforts of school advisory councils also known as the school health team. Some of which maybe be nurses representing both the school and the community. They mainly offer advisory services to the school system on the various aspects of the school health policies and programs. The outcome of this program is evaluated by the use of data reports on obesity.
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