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Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent and Young Adult Health |
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July 2024
 The Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent and Young Adult Health (MNPAH) created an action plan to guide adolescent and young adult health in Minnesota. This developed plan was created to motivate, engage, and inspire action. It recognizes the important contributions and amazing ideas that exist across our great state. Each month this newsletter will highlight a priority from the plan and showcase an adolescent health partner in Minnesota.
In this edition
Ensure young people are provided with and have the tools to seek accurate and age-appropriate health information.
From conversations with friends and family to TikTok and Instagram, it seems health information (both reliable and not-so-reliable) is everywhere we turn.
Adolescence offers a unique time for young people to learn health literacy skills. Health literacy for young people emphasizes how to use health information rather than just understand it. The goal of this priority is to provide young people with the skills to seek accurate and age-appropriate health information, which will allow them to make well-informed decisions about their lives. The action steps focus on the delivery of health information, health education standards, and how young people may access and interact with that information.
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Direct young people to trusted websites and social media platforms where young people, parents and caregivers, and youth-serving professionals can validate and fact-check health-related information.
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Promote evidence-informed healthy youth development programs.
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Teach young people how to access and use the health care system.
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Develop easily accessible life skills resources for young adults transitioning to adulthood.
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Teach young people how to find medically accurate information in a digital environment.
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Advocate for state-wide comprehensive sex education standards and implementation.
Evergreen is an adolescent health partner that implements the Minnesota Department of Health’s (MDH) personal responsibility education program. The vision of this program is to create successful transitions from youth to adulthood by promoting healthy decisions and providing medically-accurate, evidence-based quality sexual education to Minnesota teens.
Shelbi Kline serves as Evergreen’s sober program coordinator and pregnancy/STI prevention specialist in Bemidji, MN. She leads the personal responsibility education program at the Northwestern Minnesota Juvenile Center’s secure unit. The personal responsibility education program curriculum strives to provide students with a sense of belonging and purpose and decrease teen pregnancies and STIs. Evergreen has also implemented this education program in local group homes in Bemidji.
“It’s rewarding to see the youth learn and grow throughout programming,” said Kline. “We’ve engaged with 157 teens just in the past year, and I know we’re making an impact.”
Evergreen provides wraparound services for their community’s most vulnerable youth and families, providing emergency shelter, food and clothing, family counseling, housing resources, therapy, transportation, support for youth who have been sex trafficked or sexually exploited, and life skills training for youth who have experienced serious trauma. Evergreen also implements a harm-reduction program called the Rock Star Program that provides a safe outlet for youth ages 14-18 in Bemidji that are using any substance.
Evergreen is client-centered with an emphasis on being responsive to individual and families' needs while maintaining a high level of professionalism, compassion, and empathy.
Present or attend the Evergreen Annual Conference
The Evergreen Annual Conference, the premier training event held in northern Minnesota for youth-serving professionals from across the state, is currently seeking presenters. Visit the Evergreen call for presenters webpage for more information. Deadline for applications is August 16. The conference will be held October 29-30, 2024 in Bemidji.
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July is Disability Pride Month
Disability Pride Month is celebrated every July and is an opportunity to honor the history, achievements, experiences, and struggles of the disability community. It is held in July to mark the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Youth with disabilities want and have the right to the same things all youth do, including safe places to live, learn, and play, meaningful engagement in their community, and strong relationships. Disability Hub MN is a tool supporting this goal by providing a free statewide resource network that helps people with disabilities solve problems, navigate the system, and plan for their future.
People with disabilities also have the same sexual and romantic feelings as anyone else, feelings that young people may have questions about as they grow up. To learn more about supporting youth with disabilities regarding sexuality, check out this video on disability and sexuality from Amaze.org and its accompanying educational material.
New report on Minnesota’s school nurse workforce
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The MDH has new information and data on the Minnesota school nurse workforce which was collected in 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the health and wellbeing of students, families, school nurses, and educators which in turn has impacted school nurses and school health services staff. Through emails, calls, and website scans, the Minnesota Departments of Health and Education and partners set about collecting school nurse and health service staffing data from 94% of public school districts and charter schools in Minnesota. Read the complete Minnesota School Nurse Workforce: A 2022 Snapshot report (PDF). |
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Healthy Minnesota Partnership community conversations
In 2024, the Healthy Minnesota Partnership is developing the next statewide health improvement framework, which is a multi-year action plan to address prioritized issues elevated in the recently released statewide health assessment. Attend a virtual community conversation in July to share your input and help the Partnership decide what to prioritize and work on over the next four years. For dates and registration, and to learn more about the improvement framework, visit the Healthy Minnesota Statewide Health Improvement Framework webpage.
Dates: Multiple options to participate in a virtual community conversation between July 8 and July 17, 2024, see link above.
Trends in Mental Health & Levels of Care
This one-hour webinar explores the need for a transformation in our mental health care systems. Led by Dr. Joshua Stein, board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist at PrairieCare/Psychiatric Assistance Line in Brooklyn Park, MN, this session will explore the critical elements necessary to revolutionize how we approach mental health care. We need to normalize conversations around mental health, invest in education, identification, and prevention, create better ways to access care and be better prepared for crisis. Reviewing current trends in mental health in youth and different levels of care as potential access points will provide attendees with a better understanding on how to offer comprehensive care. Multiple resources will be reviewed including access to free psychiatric consultations for prescribing providers. Visit Health Care Homes Learning Collaborative Webinars to learn more.
Date: July 16
Time: Noon to 1 p.m.
Effective HPV Vaccine Communication: Helping providers and nursing staff make strong vaccine recommendations
Join the North Dakota State University Center for Immunization Research and Education and Drs. Noel Brewer and Jessica Young for this webinar to
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Understand the impact of HPV vaccine for cancer prevention.
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Describe the three key steps of the Announcement Approach for HPV vaccine communication.
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Identify resources for bringing the Announcement Approach Training to your office or health care system.
Minnesota Safe Routes to Meetup 2024 (St. Paul)
Join the Minnesota Safe Routes to School Network for a one-day, in-person meetup that’s collaborative, engaging, and fun! Network with Safe Routes practitioners from across Minnesota and engage in co-learning across sectors, featuring the national Safe Routes Partnership. Breakfast and lunch will be provided and there will be an optional happy hour afterward.
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Date: July 18
Time: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Location: Gatherings at Station 10, 754 Randolph Ave Floor 2, Saint Paul, MN
Registration Link
2024 Summer Institute in Adolescent Health: Cultivating Adolescent Well-being in the Digital Age
The 2024 Summer Institute in Adolescent Health explores adolescent wellbeing in the digital age.
Date: July 22 – 24
Time: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Location: Como Zoo and Conservatory, 1225 Estabrook Drive, St. Paul, MN
Registration Link
Minnesota model jail practices learning community: Supporting children and families with an incarcerated parent
Evidence suggests that one in six Minnesota youth reports a history of parental incarceration. Supporting the parent-child relationship is a key strategy for fostering resilience in children affected by incarceration.
MDH and the University of Minnesota have expanded a pilot program to 14 counties across Minnesota to help children impacted by parent incarceration. Attend this webinar to learn about a range of strategies underway within the model jail practices learning community which are critical for healthy child development, including some zero-cost changes and long-term policy changes such as child-preferred visiting hours that counties can make to help strengthen and maintain the parent-child relationship.
Date: July 30
Time: 10 a.m. to noon
Registration Link
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The Minnesota Partnership for Adolescent and Young Adult Health
This collaboratively developed plan was designed to support community-based efforts – whether led by health systems, youth-serving organizations, or young people – with a unifying vision, and collectively agreed-upon priorities to motivate, engage, and inspire action. If your agency has a program that you would like featured or an event or resource you’d like to share with this network, please send it to us at Health.AdolescentHealth@state.mn.us.
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