Consortium talks alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy and mental health

A consortium group working to improve the health of Hill County heard updates concerning the mental health awareness, alcohol abuse and teen pregnancy task forces at a meeting Tuesday at Northern Montana Hospital.

Amber Spring, of the mental health awareness task force, said that her group now has a website, http://www.hillcountylac.com.

“It will be a place for us to list our mental health resources, upcoming events, people on our committee and ways to contact them,” she said.

Spring also said that she has been in contact with John Ita, the Havre High School Key Club adviser. Spring said the club has a female member who wants to bring awareness to suicide before she graduates this May.

Spring added that she reached out to the student but has not heard back yet.

“The hope was we could do some collaboration, maybe helping them bring in a speaker or doing some kind of other type of awareness program,” she said.

Ita said in a voicemail message Tuesday that Hannah Pepprock, the club’s president is the one planning this project.

“We’re in the discussion stages of what we can do at the high school to raise awareness of suicide issues with some students,” he said. “We’re just trying to coordinate some activity here.”

Ron Kling, of the alcohol abuse task force, said that his group is planning to do a sequel/remake of the 2008 version of the “Every 15 Minutes” program.

According to http://www.every15minutes.com, this program is an interactive event designed to show teenagers the potentially dangerous consequences of drinking alcohol and texting while driving. A car crash is re-enacted and students are chosen at random to “die.” The goal of this is to offer real-life experiences without the real-life risks.

Kling also said his group needs to get approval and coordination from the school administrations.

“Instead of just emphasizing it at Havre High School, we are also looking at including Rocky Boy,” he added.

Jessica Kennedy of the teen pregnancy task force said that her group has finalized the dates and times for a three-part series of classes titled “Have You Had ‘the Talk?’” These classes will be free of charge and taught by Janet Trethewey and Darlene Sellers.

“We thought about having this class for the parents because studies show that parents are the number one influence in a kid’s life,” Kennedy said.

Trethewey said the first class will discuss getting prepared, the second class will concern the facts of life and the third class will discuss continuing the conversation.

Trethewey added that these classes will focus on various topics such as discussing with one’s kids — like sex, drugs and “any of those other sensitive topics within a family that they may need to discuss.”

These classes are scheduled for Jan. 15, Jan. 22 and Jan. 29. from 6:30 to 8 p.m.. The location of the classes are not set in stone at this time.

The next consortium meeting is scheduled for March 17.

For more information on any of these groups, visit http://www.hillcountyhealth.com.