Programs

Discovery Health Connection Education Programs

Imagine having access to 14 comprehensive, K-12 curriculum programs, addressing almost every conceivable topic in health and prevention. Imagine being able to download lessons, worksheets, and extension exercises at the click of a mouse. Imagine being able to stream or download over 500 videos to supplement those lessons. Imagine being able to use literacy lessons to increase students' reading comprehension.

Through the Discovery Health Connection-online anchor programs and supplemental materials designed to be easy for teachers and engaging for students; lessons and videos developed by the leaders in health and prevention education, such as Comprehensive Health Education Foundation (CHEF), Discovery School, AIMS Multimedia, Discovery Health Channel and United Learning and scope and sequences based on information developed by national health and educational organizations, such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Health

Too Smart To Start Public Education Campaign

Too Smart To Start is a public education initiative sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to provide research-based strategies and materials to professionals and volunteers at the community level to help them conduct an underage alcohol use prevention program. The materials are designed to educate 9- to 13-year-olds about the harms of alcohol use and to support parents and caregivers as they participate in their children's activities.

The hallmark of the Too Smart To Start initiative is its flexibility in the way in which it can be implemented in the local community. Too Smart To Start is not intended to be prescriptive. Rather, it offers information on the alcohol use behaviors of 9- to 13-year-olds, a consistent message, and basic materials and strategies to localize and deliver the core behavioral messages.

The Partnership offers underage alcohol use prevention services and materials by collaborating and networking with middle school teachers, students, businesses, and community-based service providers.

The Too Smart To Start team focuses its efforts on 9- to 13-year-olds in area schools through the use of interactive classroom activities and Too Smart To Start materials and resources. In addition, Project Alert-a science-based drug prevention curriculum for middle school youth-teaches youth the skills and strategies needed to resist pro-drug pressures and establish anti-drug norms. Youth also are exposed to no-use messages through lesson plans, awards day programs, sports programs, and open houses.

To reach the parents and caregivers of its target group, the Too Smart To Start team developed and distributes paycheck stuffers, no-use stickers on pizza boxes, and educational packets that include information on the harms of underage alcohol use and communication methods that parents can use when talking with their children about underage alcohol use. Other dissemination channels used by the team include radio public service announcements, local print media, health fairs, and other community events.

To obtain Too Smart To Start materials and publications, please visit SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information.

Minority HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaign

The purpose of this campaign is to provide HIV/AIDS education and awareness activities that will encourage minority populations to get tested for HIV/AIDS and avoid high-risk behaviors that could lead to HIV/AIDS infection. This campaign is also geared toward working with minority faith-based members to encourage them to work in educating their clients about the harmful effects of HIV/AIDS.

Facts About AIDS and HIV

What Are HIV and AIDS?

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome). AIDS is a disease of the immune system for which there is treatment, but no cure, at the present time. The virus (HIV) and the disease it causes (AIDS) are often linked and referred to as "HIV/AIDS."

HIV can be transferred among people if an infected person's blood or other bodily fluid comes in contact with the blood, broken skin, or mucous membranes of an uninfected person. In addition, infected pregnant women can pass HIV to their babies during pregnancy, delivery, and breastfeeding.

HIV destroys a certain kind of white blood cell that is crucial to the normal function of the human immune system. Loss of these CD4+ cells in people with HIV is a key predictor of the development of AIDS. Because of their compromised immune system, people with AIDS often develop infections of the lungs, brain, eyes, and other organs, and they frequently suffer dangerous weight loss, diarrhea, and a type of cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma.

Some hopeful news is that in recent years, HIV is no longer a death sentence, as it was when the epidemic began. This is largely because of treatment with HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy), a combination of three or more antiretroviral medications that can suppress the virus and prevent or decrease symptoms of illness.

HIV/AIDS has been a global epidemic for more than 25 years-most of today's youth have never known a world without it. In the United States, the latest estimates indicate that about 1 million people are living with HIV or AIDS.

In 2003, 43,171 new AIDS diseases cases were reported. The number of HIV infections is harder to confirm as only about two-thirds of the States report HIV infections. Estimates from these data indicate that about 40,000 new HIV infections have occurred annually since the early 1990s, down from the peak of 160,000 new infections per year in the mid-1980s.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about one-quarter of the people in the United States who are infected with HIV do not know they are infected.

Drug abuse and addiction have been inextricably linked with HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic. Although injection drug use is well known in this regard, the role that non-injection drug abuse plays more generally in the spread of HIV is less recognized. This is partly due to the addictive and intoxicating effects of many drugs, which can alter judgment and inhibition and lead people to engage in impulsive and unsafe behaviors.

Injection drug use.

People typically associate drug abuse and HIV/AIDS with injection drug use and needle sharing. When injection drug users share "equipment"-such as needles, syringes, and other drug injection paraphernalia-HIV can be transmitted between users. Other infections-such as hepatitis C-can also be spread this way. Hepatitis C can cause liver disease and permanent liver damage.

Poor judgment and risky behavior.

Drug abuse by any route (not just injection) can put a person at risk for getting HIV. Drug and alcohol intoxication affect judgment and can lead to unsafe sexual practices, which put people at risk for getting HIV or transmitting it to someone else.

Biological effects of drugs.

Drug abuse and addiction can affect a person's overall health, thereby altering susceptibility to HIV and progression of AIDS. Drugs of abuse and HIV both affect the brain. Research has shown that HIV causes greater neuronal injury and cognitive impairment among Methamphetamine abusers than among HIV patients who do not abuse drugs. In animal studies, Methamphetamine has been shown to increase the amount of HIV in brain cells.

Drug abuse treatment.

Since the late 1980s, research has shown that treating drug abuse is an effective way to prevent the spread of HIV. Drug abusers in treatment stop or reduce their drug use and related risk behaviors, including drug injection and unsafe sexual practices. Drug treatment programs also serve an important role in disseminating current information on HIV/AIDS and related diseases, providing counseling and testing services, and offering referrals for medical and social services.

How Are Teens Affected?

Young people are at risk for contracting HIV and developing AIDS. According to CDC, about 38,490 young people age 13 to 24 in the United States had been diagnosed with AIDS by the end of 2003. And the trend was increasing-from 3.9 percent diagnosed with AIDS in 1999 to 4.7 percent in 2003.

In youth, as in adults, some populations are disproportionately affected. African Americans age 13 to 19 represent only 15 percent of the U.S. teenage population, but accounted for 66 percent of new AIDS cases in 2003. The reasons for this disparity are not completely understood; in fact, African American youth have lower rates of drug abuse than Whites and Hispanics.

In general, middle and late adolescence is a time when young people engage in risk-taking and sensation-seeking-behaviors that may put them in jeopardy of contracting HIV. Regardless of whether a young person takes drugs, unsafe sexual practices increase a person's risk of contracting HIV. But drugs and alcohol can increase the chances of unsafe behavior by altering judgment and decision making.

References

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention. What Is HIV? (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/faq/faq1.htm). Atlanta, GA: CDC, DHHS. Retrieved November 2005.
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention. Basic Statistics AIDS Cases by Exposure Category (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/stats.htm#exposure). Atlanta, GA: CDC, DHHS. Retrieved November 2005.
3. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Research Report Series on HIV/AIDS (http://www.nida.nih.gov/ResearchReports/hiv/hiv.html). Bethesda, MD: NIDA, NIH, DHHS. Retrieved November 2005.
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV/AIDS Surveillance in Adolescents, L265 Slide Series (http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/graphics/adolesnt.htm). Atlanta, GA: CDC, DHHS. Retrieved November 2005.
5. World AIDS Day. World AIDS Day (http://www.worldaidsday.org). Retrieved November 2005.

Community Action Life Life (CALL) Program

The Partnership For A Healthy Scott County, Inc. has taken the lead in becoming the first organization in the State of Mississippi to implement the CALL Program. The CALL Program is an automated 24-hour referral services that allows every students, parent, business, health, teacher or community volunteer to access state of the art messages relating to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, health, parenting, and child development, personal growth, mental health, fitness, nutrition, sexual health, and safety issues. The CALL Program is designed to include over 200 educational messages that have been written and reviewed by health educators and industry experts and organizations such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The CALL Program is unique because it is completely anonymous and confidential and is an excellent tool to help parents and their children initiate discussions about sensitive topics.

Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Programs (ATOD)

By providing research and science-based prevention programs that are effective in reducing the incidence of illegal substances youth are exposed to. By incorporating programs that are proven to reduce substance use, we can effectively target youth in a systematic approach that is proven to impact at-risk youth.

Families First Resource Center

Provides an comprehensive array of services to needy families who are at or below the 300 Percent Federal Poverty Level in Scott County. Level in Scott County. Some past services provided through the resource has been parenting class, English As A Second Language, Entrepreneurial/Start Up Assistance, Abstinence-Only Prevention Classes, and general information and referral services. The center serves as a digital network technology to enhance clients' computer skills and needs and provides a technology gate wood for people who are low-incomes or identified as at-risk.

School-Based Programs Provided

Includes Project Alert, a science-based drug prevention curriculum for middle school students 11-14 year old, which dramatically reduces both the onset of substance abuse and their regular use. The two-year 14-lesson program focuses on the substances those adolescents are most likely to use such as alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and inhalants. Project Alert use participatory activities and video to help:

• Motivate adolescents against drug use
• Teach adolescents the skills and strategies needed to resist pro-drug pressures
• Establish non drug using norms

Drug-Free Scholarship Program

Since 2001, the Partnership For A Healthy Scott County, Inc. has honored outstanding seniors in the Scott County area for their commitment to remain alcohol, tobacco and drug free. Students who are selected must be positive role models, participate in community service activities, and serve as ambassadors in promoting no use.

Community Talent Search

Student's ages 5-19 are eligible to participate and become involved in our local talent search program, which recognize and promotes the performing arts for students in the community. Students are eligible to compete for $1,000 cash prizes in additions for other cash prizes.

General Sponsorships

Includes sponsoring youth league sports teams, student proms, and other activities that students can participate in a safe and fun atmosphere. The coalition has sponsored the local SADD Chapters and other student group since its inception.

Mother and Daughters Social

Students along with their mothers and daughters have the opportunity to dine out and bond for one night out. Through this program, students and parents have the opportunity to dress up and to have fun as well as interact with other mothers and daughters in a positive setting.

Town Hall Meetings

Our coalition was the first in the Scott, Newton, Leake and Jasper County area to host a community town hall meeting addressing the need to tackle underage drinking among young people. The town hall meeting included a variety of representatives from law enforcement to community-based social service providers.

GED/Adult Basic Education Services

Adults have the opportunity to received GED assistance through the Scott County Families First Resource Center as well as resources for secondary education.

Awards/Recognition

The PHSC was recently recognized in January 2005 by the Mississippi Business Journal as a small outstanding non-profit coalition. The Founder and CEO, Michael D. Dozier was also inducted into the Mississippi Business Journal Who's Who's of CEO. Other recognition includes being recognized by Microsoft Corporation as a community technology center that provides services to low-income residents.