Thursday, April 30, 2009 — Will you act?

That was the question asked to the Stanly County community Monday night as members of the community and area health officials gathered to discuss the state of the county’s health.

The discussions were part of the second annual Health Expo held at the Stanly Regional Medical Center, the goal of which was to update the 2007 Community Health Assessment report.

The theme of the night was “Taking Action for our Youth,” and much of the discussion was health risks for children and what can be done to prevent and address risks.

“We can’t turn a blind eye to the concerns facing our youth. We have to take one child at a time and focus on the ‘who’ and not the ‘what’,” said Dr. LaMonica Barnum, a doctor in pediatrics through Stanly Pediatric Services.

A few of the main concerns with youth, which were presented in the Community Health Assessment, include obesity, teen pregnancy and STD prevention.

“We’ve got to keep in mind that adults’ health are results of habits they develop in their youth,” said Dennis Joyner, health director for the Stanly County Health Department.

Joyner presented statistics during the expo to bring into perspective the importance of health concerns for the county’s youth.

In 2007, there were 131 teenage pregnancies, ages 10-19, two of which were to girls age 10-14. Stanly County was also above the rate for the state in adolescent pregnancies.

The percentage of repeat pregnancies for girls age 15-19 was also higher than the state average, with 29.4 percent of all teenage pregnancies being a repeat.

In 2008, there were 79 new reported cases of adolescent STDs, which is an increase from 2007 that saw 72 reported cases.

One of the concerns for this, which was presented during the panel discussion at the expo, is that not all cases of STDs are reported.

Obesity is also a concern for the county, according to results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey, which showed that 64.9 percent of Piedmont area adults were overweight or obese.

Childhood obesity is also a concern as 66.7 percent of children age 12-18 are at-risk or overweight, according to data released by the North Carolina Nutrition and Physical Activity Surveillance System (NC-NPASS).

More than 27 percent of children age 5-11 are at-risk or overweight and more than 21 percent of children age 2-4 fit into the same category.

Many of the community members and health officials that spoke at the expo are passionate about helping children and believe that these health concerns can be addressed and reversed.

Among those is Paul Jenkins with That Youth Thing, who was the guest speaker of the event.

“Our youth are lacking something critical and its called perspective. They don’t have perspective because they haven’t lived long enough. They need someone to tell them that the sun is going to rise the next day and that should be our job,” Jenkins said.

Among the others that spoke during the event were members of the Stanly County Partnership in Health and Youth Advisory Council.

These included Kim Scott, Stanly County Schools Student Serivces director; Amy Calloway, Stanly Regional Butterfly House director; Patti Lewis, family nurse practitioner; Bonnie Winecoff, health educator/Passport to Fitness coordinator; David Hunt, school resource officer; and Ben Millsap, Mental Health program manager.

The panel addressed questions from the audience on topics such as autism and how it relates to vaccinations, gang activity and what’s being done to address it both in school and on the street, bullying in school and how mental health relates to these other issues, as well as the topics of obesity and teenage pregnancy and STDs.

At the end of the event, a brief clip from the movie “Titanic” was shown where 1,500 passengers went into the sea as Titanic sank and 20 boats floated nearby. Only one came back to rescue six of the 1,500.

The clip ended with a passage from Proverbs 3:27: “Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act.”

Then Jenkins asked the audience and, in turn, the community “Will you act? Will you make an attempt to help our youth?”



Contact Tiffany Thompson at (704) 982-2121 ext. 24 or snaponline24@carolina.rr.com.