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Task force looks at teen pregnancy Wednesday

Community members welcomed to give input

A task force is meeting in Havre Wednesday to continue looking at ways to improve one of the three top health issues identified for improvement in the county: Reducing teen pregnancy and working to provide more support for teens.

Wanda Meredith of the Hill County Health Department said the task force is hoping community members will attend the meeting, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Hill County Courthouse Annex Conference Room, to help come up with ideas.

“Anyone that is interested in helping us out would be great,” she said this morning.

Meredith said one key issue is setting up a teen group or board to give young people’s perspective on the issue.

The goal of the task force is to engage people, including county teens, in finding ways to reduce the number of teen pregnancies and the negative impacts from teen pregnancies.

The task force has had meetings, working on a timeline established during a meeting last winter. That plan of action included increasing resources and support for pregnant teens, conducting outreach to services and then working to fill gaps in support and services identified.

A major effort through the fall will be to include teens in the planning strategy and to identify activities to keep teens involved.

After conducting needs assessments in August the Hill County Health Consortium identified 10 top health priorities then narrowed them down to the top three concerns to address in a health improvement plan.

The top three are:

• Reduce the number of teen pregnancies in the county

• Reduce and address alcohol abuse

• Increase awareness and provide more help for mental health problems.

 
 

Reader Comments(2)

rosie writes:

Hahaha. You are so right on that one, Rich! In today's world parents are afraid of their children and just let's them walk all over them.

Rich writes:

What happened to parents this should be a conversation between their children and them not a committee that is thrown together by officals. Why has everyone came so dependent on government, is it their responsibility to teach your child why they should not have children at such a young age. Sorry but parents are pathetic today a lot of you should be ashamed.