Designing a Sex Education Program - Essay Example

Sex Education Program Sex education is a continuous process of building sexual health and it starts at conception until one dies. The process includes sexual development, reproduction intimacy, gender roles and relationships. Sexual education should therefore start at home, parents and guardians should utilize the time they spend with their children to teach them about sex education. At a very tender age, a child knows his/her sexuality, they learn how to respond to affection, show love and react to different types of relationships. They differentiate themselves with the kind of clothing they put on, how their parents communicate with them and so on. As the process matures, they continue to learn about their sexuality consistently. The approach of sexuality however changes in that, some parents no longer feel comfortable discussing sexuality with their teenagers. The teens on the other hand do not also feel comfortable discussing sexuality with their parents. Institutions such as school and other related healthcare centers must therefore come in to help the parents in molding their children in topics concerning sex education. In my case am going to discuss sexuality in teenage pregnancy and how best to educate the teenagers to surpass the problems they encountered during the difficult moments of teenage pregnancy. The goal of my project is to try and lessen the increasing teenage pregnancies and combat the scourge of HIV and AIDS. According to Lisa Shuger (2012), Teen Pregnancy and High School Dropout, Nearly one-third of teen girls who have dropped out of high school cite early pregnancy or parenthood as a key reason. One out of the 40 percent of teen moms finish high school and less than two percent of teen mothers (those who have a baby before age 18) finish college by age 30. The high school dropout rate in this country continues to be a crisis; nearly one in four Americans and four in 10 minorities do not complete high school with their class. In addition, the national graduation rate increased by 3.5 percentage points between 2001and 2009 (from 72 percent in 2001 to 75.5 percent in 2009). Tsai and Wong (2003) identified a number of risk factors that contribute to teenage pregnancy. Those factors are unsafe sexual activity, under use of contraception, numerous sexual partners, substance misuse, deprivation, insufficient attendance and bad performance at school and sometimes school dropout, low family income or single parent family.Adolescent pregnancy is one of the main issues in every health care system. The reason is that an early pregnancy can have harmful implications on girls’ physical, psychological, economic and social status (Tsai and Wong 2003). Due to lack of antenatal appointments by the teenage parents, the babies are likely to be born premature, underweight among other factors. It is also predicted that it is more likely these children will be raised in single‐parents families and to live in poverty (Social Exclusion Unit 1999). Prevention measures and health promotion strategies are very important in the cases where young persons’ health needs have to be met (Sarantaki A. RM and Koutelekos I. RN 2005). By developing programs in schools on sex education, it will greatly help in reducing the rate of pregnancies. This program will help equip the teenagerswith the knowledge to help them in decision making; they are therefore in a position to arrive at informed choices on sexual activities and the kind of relationships they engage themselves in. This will also help them behave in more responsible way and in such a case, it will help them in reducing the rate of HIV/ AIDS transmission in the society. Watson (2003) stated a strategy can be successful only when a multi-agency task group is formed with representatives that provide services and work closely with children and young people. Therefore a single body cannot undertake the task of educating our teenagers. Different bodies should come together for a smoother sex and health education process.Measures that can be taken to reduce the pregnancies are to provide better information to our young people regarding the availability of contraceptive services and how they can be made available to them. This will greatly help the generation reduce the levels of pregnancies while continuing to enjoy their sexual activities. For example for individual to quickly get access to Emergency Hormonal Contraception (EHC), systems such as Fast Track Card should be put in place. This will enable urgent appointment to anyone displaying the card. Information can also be provided about local contraception and sexual health services for under 25s (Saunders 2002). For the policy to be effective and cover a wider radius, it should be implemented in all the cities of a state. Statistics need to be carried out, for those cities/ towns that have a large population of teenagers should be addressed separately and that sex education and based information be emphasized.Tabi (2002) stated that communities, in order to achieve the desired outcome, that is to reduce unintended pregnancies, first have to identify high‐risk behaviors in the community that affect young people’s growth and development, and then design interventions from a holistic perspective. To communicate effectively to the teenagers, a team of professional has to be formed to effectively work closely with the young population for effective operations. By doing so, they will be assured of reaching out to a large population and educate the teenagers accordingly.Underdown and Sexty (2000) established, only 25% of the health enhancement plans had built up a local focal point on sexual shape and adolescent pregnancy through multiagency working. However, Hawksley (1996) stressed that teenage pregnancy can be tackled more effectively when multidisciplinary teams work in collaboration in order to address the multiplicity of the needs of teenagers regarding their sexual health. At the National level good strategies need to be put in place to prevent pregnancy.Tsai and Wong (2003) explained that health care providers need to design intervention programs that empower family, school and society in general, so they can play an important role by providing all the necessary information regarding sex education. The government should therefore come in place and fund all the programmers developed with the aim of educating the youth with regards to early pregnancy and the general sex education. By the government funding these projects, it will greatly help teenage mothers to develop their self-esteem and maturity (Hawksley 1996). It is understandable that the implementation of such policies can be a tool to minimize the risk of long term social exclusion of teenage parents and their children (Lawler et al. 2001). Health Strategies can also help to reduce the teenage pregnancy level. According to World Health Organization (1986),Health Promotion Strategies refers to the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and improve their health. These strategies help individual by improving on their environment, educate and inform them on the health related issues. By promoting the health strategies it will ensure that the level of illness in communities is reduced. According to Jolley 2001, the health lesson offered to the young can be deemed effective if only proper information is relayed to the individuals.Teenage pregnancy could be tackled effectively only when integrated nursing Interventions are involved, Carter (1995). This approach will then help in the sense that different practitioners will come together and work toward improving on ways of reducing teenage pregnancy. The government and the different institutions should therefore come up with an action plan on how best to reduce teenage pregnancy. This should be done by providing the relevant information to the youth in a more friendly and convincing manner in the appropriate environment where they feel comfortable discussion the topic on sex education.Professionals involved and money spend are key to reducing the pregnancies. Andalo (2005) suggests that the success of a strategy depends on the amount of money that will be invested in order to meet the desired targets. In conclusion the measure of the teenage pregnancy reduction can be measured using the available statistics. Conduct a statistics of the current situation in terms on teenage pregnancy reported in hospitals over a certain period of time, say one year. You could also use the available statistics of the last five years. Implement all the measures and policies mentioned. Involve all the stakeholders required; this would involve professionals in the health sector, teachers and parents among others. The government should also fund all the programs and campaigns that are going to be involved. After a few years you will notice that if campaigns were conducted in the right manner, major improvement in sex education will have improved reducing the case of teenage pregnancy and the rate of HIV/AIDS in the community. References Andalo D. (2005).Strategic Thinking.Nursing Management. Carter K. (1995). An integrated Approach. Nursing Times.. Jolley S. (2001).Promoting Teenage Sexual Health: An Investigation into the Knowledge, Activities and Perceptions of Gynecology Nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing. Sarantaki A. RM,KoutelekosI. RN(2005).Teenage Pregnancy. Tabi M.M. (2002).Community Perspective on a Model to Reduce Teenage Pregnancy. Journal Read More