Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Should first graders have access to condoms?


I had no idea what a condom was when I was in first grade. Did you?

One June 10 a Cape Cod community school board approved a new condom distribution policy for the school district. According to the new policy, students as young as 6 years old would be allowed to obtain a condom from the school nurse without fear of the school notifying their parents. The new policy has parents, politicians, and members of the community in an uproar.




She may have a point. According to the Kinsey Institute, 25 percent of boys and 26 percent of girls have sexual intercourse for the first time before the age of 15. With so many teens having sex before high school, doesn't it seem wise to allow access to birth control and protection against STIs?


For years we have heard the argument that giving teens access to condoms does nothing but encourage sex. Studies have now shown this is simply not the case. The non-profit Advocates for Youth has complied research from a variety of sources including the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics hat shows that "condom availability programs encourage sexually active teens to use condoms more often and more consistently than do their sexually active peers who are without condom availability programs." In addition, Advocates for Youth reports that "studies show that condom availability programs do not encourage teens to initiate sex and do not cause sexually active teens to have sex more often or with more partners."


So what do you think? Should kids in first grade have access to condoms at school? Does the school need to inform parents if their child asks for condoms? Most importantly, can we expect elementary school students to use the phrase "No glove, no love?"

Monday, June 28, 2010

Botox for teens?!?


Would you get Botox injections before wrinkles even appeared? Apparently well over ten thousand teens have answered "yes" with great enthusiasm. Last year the American Society of Plastic Surgeons found 11,889 cosmetic Botox/Dysport procedures were performed on patients age 13 to 19! That's a lot of wrinkle-prevention!


Although I may not look as youthful as our Peer Leaders, going under the knife for a nip and tuck is honestly the last thing on my mind. Even the thought of Botox makes me squirm.


Seriously, what do you think? Should teens be "Toxing?" If you are one of our teen readers, have you ever done this? Would you consider it?

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Welcome to the new Sonoma County Peer Outreach Coalition Blog! We have decided that it is time for a change so we are parting ways with our old blog and moving to Blogger. All of our old posts have been moved over, so there is no need to panic!

Hang in there! New, cool stuff is coming your way!

By the way, did you check out our Contest of the Month on our website?

Friday, June 25, 2010

More for Pride Weekend! Sweet!


Remember Constance McMillen? She is the teenager from Mississippi who asked to bring her girlfriend to prom and her school decided to cancel the prom!

Lame!

Anyway, I am happy to report that Constance was chosen to be one of the three grand marshals this weekend in the New York City Pride Parade! Awesome!
Click on the pic from the SF Chronicle to read the article.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Pride weekend and National HIV Testing Month! June is a busy month!

And….we’re back! I am especially excited to be back just in time for Pride Weekend in San Francisco! In case you did not know, June is LGBQT Pride month. I also found out today from The National Youth Advocacy Coalition that June is also National HIV Testing Month.

The SCPOC wants to know how you are celebrating Pride month. Tell us! What are your plans? Are you going to celebrate this weekend?

Also, the best way to advocate for HIV testing and awareness is to get tested. June 27th is National HIV Testing Day. Are you going to go get tested?

Friday, June 11, 2010

Technical difficulties?


Nope! There may be a few less posts than in previous weeks, but I am simply out of the office for a few days.


Anyway, vacation makes you healthier and improves your mental well-being! Hey, thanks NPR! Maybe while I am on vacation you should get some R&R too!


So rest assured, your will still get your SCPOC fix. See you soon, and remember...RELAX!!!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010


Holy moly! The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline just took its 2 millionth call since they started operating in 2005! I knew suicide was on the rise, but I had no idea that suicide is almost twice as common as homicide! According to the latest data, there are about 34,598 suicides per year as opposed to approximately 18,361 homicides. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline takes approximately 1,800 calls per day. Think how different the numbers would be if the Lifeline didn’t exist!

In case you know someone who needs help, the number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The Lifeline connects callers instantly with a trained counselor closest to the caller’s location. Oh, and of course it is available 24/7.

The Sonoma County POC gives major props to Lifeline! Want to know more? Click on the pic to read the full article!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Ask us ANYTHING!


Anything? Really? Do you mean that?

We just made added a new feature to our website called "So Shana..." Click on the link on the page to send an e-mail to the Mental Health Program Specialist for the Sonoma County Peer Outreach Coalition.

You e-mail will be kept completely confidential. We will post the answer on the "Ask us Anything" page of the website. What do you want to ask us?
Ask us anything! Ask us about depression, stress, dating, situations with friends, things that bum you out or make you angry, sex, concerns....ANYTHING!
What are you waiting for? Come check us out and get answers to your questions!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Peer Leader Post: M&M's by Marcos Garcilazo


I love M&M’s. When I was little, I used to get a small bag of M&Ms in my lunchbox, along with my CapriSun, baby carrots, and flutternutter sandwich. At lunch, I would open the bag and divide the M&M’s by color and give my best friend all the red, yellow, and green. I would get the brown, blue, and orange M&M’s. Eventually, Mom stopped putting M&M’s bags in my lunchbox and replaced them with chocolate bars. I'm not sure why, but the chocolate bar never tasted as good. To this day, every time I get M&M’s, I still remember sitting on that table diving up M&M’s, thinking them different simply because they looked different.

I no longer divide my M&M’s and refuse the yellow ones, but I will always remember doing it. It's one of those things that you remember at the oddest of times. I remembered it my very first day of high school. I showed up wearing jeans and a black hoodie and tennis shoes, happy to see my friends but scared about the fact that the school population had gone from about two hundred to a thousand. Instantly, I was an M&M, and some big hand was sitting there dividing us up. I went to say “hi” to the other Hispanic students and started catching up, half in English and half in Spanish. I had already been placed within "my group." We have so many ways to divide ourselves - gender, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, height, weight, hair color, hometown, language, interests, socioeconomic status, occupation, by association, etc, etc. Those are some of the biggest, but we have so many ways to divide ourselves. On the one hand, it's easier to make friends with people that you share common interests, but on the other hand, if we're divided into groups, there's going to be a lot less people around altogether. Doesn't the saying go "the more, the merrier?"

Once we were all in our groups, it became an "us versus them" field. That division of the student body became the ground from where bullying, teasing, intimidation, and isolation sprung. All of the sudden, people felt it was okay to make fun people outside their group. It was okay to make fun of the kid that was overweight, it was okay to make fun of the (perceived or labeled) “gay” kid, and sometimes, it was okay to do more than just verbally harass them. Because we had divided ourselves, and everyone in the school had something to say about someone, it was easy to justify an "us and them" mentality. That mentality eventually fueled behaviors that are all too common in our schools: bullying, teasing, and harassing.
I'm not proud of the fact that I made "he's a , therefore " statements. I wish I hadn't, but wishing that I hadn't doesn't change the fact that I did. We do to ourselves what I used to do to my M&M’s - divide them up, accept some, and reject others. At the end of the day, when one's at the receiving end of negative treatment, instead of there being a ton of different-colored M&Ms, there may just be one or two, or none at all to offer support and help to make it through that tough time. I'll never know just how many chances to meet new, amazing people I missed because I was so convinced that I was so different. The fact of the matter was, I was just a kid and they were just kids too. We might have looked different, but the bottom line was the same: we're all just people.

I've grown up since freshman year of high school. Today, I look at the people the same way I look at M&M’s - on the outside, we all may look different from each other, but on the inside, I know we're all the same. We're just people. The outside doesn't matter because true friendship has nothing to do with how you look or what you do or where you come from. The outside of the M&M is nothing but a shell, but the true treat is right underneath.

If we spent more time looking at the true nature of people and less on looking for differences, we would have a stronger, better community. We, the youth, hold in our hands the future. We have the chance to slowly start changing our ways, putting us all together instead of splitting us apart. I have that power and know what when I have children, I'll make sure they understand that although the M&M’s might be different colors on the outside, on the inside, they're all wonderful delights.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Do YOU have a problem with alcohol?

Well do you? It is estimated that 3 million teenagers in the United States meet the criteria for alcoholism! That's a whole lot of wine coolers. Do people still drink wine coolers?
In the meantime, I am going to see if I can figure out what young people are actually drinking these days. I should know this! I'm not that old...to prove it, here is a pic of me and my ladies out for a good time last weekend.










Have a safe and happy weekend,
Shana

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Growing pains


*Whew!* It's been a crazy couple of weeks! Over here at the POC we have been recruiting, tweeting, training, blogging, Facebook-ing, researching, web-designing and occasionally pausing to drink another 8-cup French press of coffee, all in the name of promoting mental health advocacy and awareness in Sonoma County!


So all run-on sentences aside, there will be a few big changes in the next two weeks! As you may have noticed, our blog just had a major face-lift. There will be more fun-filled action and a lot more friends on the Facebook page, and Twitter should be a bit more tweet-worthy. The biggest changes will be on the website with a new look, and bios and photos of our Peer Leaders. Keep checking back so you don't miss anything new and exciting.
Hang tight for a bit! I promise you won't be disappointed!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Risky business...


Can you name the risk factor that makes teenage girls:

THREE TIMES more likely to have sex before the age of 13

THIRTY PERCENT more likely to have more than three sex partners

and TWENTY PERCENT less likely to use condoms?

Click on the photo to find out!

What are you smoking?


What are YOU smoking? Weed or "Fake Weed?"

First there was weed. Thinking about marijuana conjures up mental images of my parents' generation at Woodstock, long hair braided and donning tie-dyed shirts. Everyone is happy, ridiculously mellow, and enjoying the 60's they way there were enjoyed so frequently: stoned.
But have you heard of "Fake Weed?" The technical term for the mixture herbal and spice plants is K2 or "spice." Unbeknownst to many, it is sprayed with a potent drug compound that causes a way for intense high than just smoking regular weed. It costs about as much per ounce as marijuana, and is completely legal.

So before you leave your computer or drop your iPhone wondering "Where can I score some?" consider this: K2 has already landed 30 young people ages 14-21 in the hospital with hallucinations, high blood pressure, vomiting and seizures. Even the creator of K2, organic chemist John W. Huffman of Clemson University, states that the drug is tremendously dangerous. "You're a potential winner of a Darwin award" he says.

To read about the dangers of K2, click on the dudes with the hookah. If you are looking for a natural high, go enjoy this beautiful June day. Chances are you won't end your day with a trip to the ER!