The seven MCH Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) training programs provide interdisciplinary leadership training in 5 Core disciplines (medicine, psychology, nursing, nutrition, and social work). The training prepares health professionals for leadership roles in clinical care, research, training, advocacy, and administration with the goal of improving family- and youth-centered, community-based care for adolescents and enhancing the capacity building with Title V programs. The LEAH faculty and fellows also provide Continuing Education (CE) and Technical Assistance (TA). Although each program has special areas of focus, the LEAH programs work together to improve the health status of adolescents, promote quality care, eliminate health disparities, and achieve the Healthy People 2010 Adolescent Objectives through partnerships with state and local health, educational, social service, and mental health agencies, professional organizations, providers, youth, families, and community organizations.
Baylor College of Medicine
Albert C. Hergenroeder, MD
(832) 822-3660
alberth@nullbcm.edu
LEAH Program Info
Chronic Illness and Disability Transition from Pediatric to Adult-based Care Conference
This two-day CE conference, hosted by the Baylor LEAH and now in its 11th year, is applicable to primary and specialty care practices and provides an interdisciplinary perspective on how teams can facilitate the transition from adolescence to adulthood in healthcare. Visit the event web site for registration and more information.
LEAH Process Portfolio
The Baylor LEAH created a Process Portfolio to help trainees achieve specific clinical, teaching, research, administrative, and public health objectives. The Portfolios are used in on-going and yearly evaluations. More than 95% of the components have been achieved by BCM LEAH trainees in the last 11 years.
Texas Children’s Hospital Kids Fun Run
This event promoted by the Baylor LEAH is a 1.8 mile, non-competitive race intended to increase physical activity in elementary and middle school students. In 2010, there were 4,941 participants including families and youth and a race for children and youth with special health care needs.
Children’s Hospital Boston
S. Jean Emans, MD
(617) 355-7170
jean.emans@nullchildrens.harvard.edu
LEAH Program Info
Community Asthma Initiative (CAI)
The Boston LEAH with funding from philanthropy and CDC and Healthy Tomorrows grants provides services to children and adolescents with asthma from 5 urban, poor neighborhoods. CAI provides nurse case management with an individualized plan, asthma education and teaching, medication management, access to care, connection to primary care providers, allergy evaluation, insurance, housing, and community resources, home visits, environmental assessment, and integrated pest management. Patients have had a significant decrease in ER visits due to asthma, hospital admissions, and missed school days compared to the 6 months prior to enrollment and to a comparison group.
The HSPH and CHB Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED)
Founded by Dr. Austin, this new initiative is creating and disseminating new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations aimed at the prevention of eating disorders
Center for Young Women’s Health
The Boston LEAH in collaboration with the Division of Gynecology created the Center for Young Women’s Health with a goal of empowering girls to learn about their health and to provide resources to teens, families, health professionals, and educators. The website: www.youngwomenshealth.org (12 million visitors each year) has 450 health guides and monitored chats on many health issues affecting adolescent girls. The peer leaders provide resident training and community outreach and have given over 40 community presentations on health issues.
Youth Men’s Health Initiative
The Boston LEAH launched a website www.youngmenshealthsite.org for teen boys in 2008 and the visitors continue to increase at a rapid rate. This website provides carefully researched health information to teenage boys and young men including health guides on topics such as sexual health, nutrition and fitness, eating disorders, and more.
Booking It in the Waiting Room
Many urban youth do not own books and have not made reading a habit. The Boston LEAH created a project five years ago to provide to teens in the waiting room free books which are age appropriate and written by diverse authors. The response has been extraordinarily positive.
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Sexual Orientation and Health Disparities
On 2005 Boston LEAH and Dr. Austin created a postdoctoral fellowship to better understand the causes and solutions for health disparities among sexual minority youth.
LEAH Youth Advisors
The exceptional and diverse Youth Advisors are paid consultants to the LEAH Program; they undertake leadership training, learning to be “experts,” provide consumer feedback, train the Fellows and MTT in communication, and disseminate health information through presentations to youth groups in the surrounding urban community. They also teach the pediatric residents how to interview teens. Results have been disseminated at national SAHM.LEAH Fellows are role models and mentors and obtain feedback from the Youth Advisors about educational initiatives, QI projects, clinic policies, etc. The Youth Advisors write a quarterly e-newsletter, “Teen Talk,” which is distributed to 300 community groups, an update for staff, and a well-read blog on teen issues..
Indiana University Medical Center
Vaughn I. Rickert, PsyD
(317) 274-8812
vrickert@nulliupui.edu
LEAH Program Info
Picturing a Healthier Future: A State Strategic Plan for Indiana’s Adolescents
The Indiana LEAH program, in conjunction with the Indiana Department of Health and its’ other partners, published and released its first adolescent health plan, Picturing a Healthier Future: A State Strategic Plan for Indiana’s Adolescents. Indiana is among only seven other states to produce such a plan.
Picturing a Healthier Future: A State Strategic Plan for Indiana’s Adolescents identifies ten health priorities (classified into one of two categories: “Access to Care” or “Prevention”) for Hoosier adolescents, and presents these priorities within the context of positive youth development. The Indiana Coalition to Improve Adolescent health (ICIAH) is composed of individuals and representatives from youth-serving agencies and organizations who share the common goal of improving the health of adolescents and emerging adults. The mission of the ICIAH is to promote optimal health and well-being for all Hoosier adolescents (ages 10-24), with an emphasis on prevention and access to quality, comprehensive health care.
The Crispus-LEAH Group Students’ Outlook about Relationships and Health
During the 2009-2010 academic year, 11 students from the Crispus Attucks Medical Magnet School joined with Adolescent Health Trainees in the Indiana LEAH program to identify a health project that was of interest to the students. Their goal was to develop a health project that was relevant to them and their peers. After monthly discussions about health, and reading Indiana’s State Adolescent Health Plan, they identified major health topics that were relevant to adolescents in their school. The health topics are Sex, Drugs, Pregnancy, Dating Violence, Gangs, Domestic Violence, and Sexually Transmitted Infections. For each health topic, the students provided information on (1) percentage of adolescents affected, (2) risk factors, (3) consequences of behaviors, and (4) prevention and potential solutions. For CLG-SOAR’s final project, the students wrote and performed a skit for their 9th grade class, and we are delighted to share the skit with you in film format on the ICIAH website.
Issues in Adolescent Health
The Indiana LEAH has developed this 3 hour graduate course in the School of Nursing for all nursing students enrolled in the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program. It uses a seminar format to survey key issues in adolescent health, such as physical and psychosocial growth and development, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, and violence and abuse. Findings from evidence-based practice and major theoretical perspectives are employed to formulate recommendations for clinical practice, future research, and policy.
University of California at San Francisco
Charles E. Irwin, Jr., MD
(415) 502-2067
patelt@nullpeds.ucsf.edu
LEAH Program Info
High School Student Summer Internship Program in Biomedical and Health Sciences
The UCSF LEAH sponsors a summer program to increase the number of underrepresented youth who are committed to and well positioned for college, as well as careers in biomedical, behavioral, or health sciences. The specific aims of this eight week program are to provide the interns hands-on exposure to scientific research, connect them with mentors, and help improve applications for successful college admission. The interns are assigned a research project and are involved in every aspect, including defining their research question, designing experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and creating a final presentation.
Fellows College
The UCSF LEAH has provided leadership for a Fellows College, instituted in 2004 to help assure academic success for ACGME fellows at UCSF Department of Pediatrics. The fellows participate in the program with about 60 other subspecialty ACGME fellows. During each year of their three year fellowship, they receive guidance and mentorship to maximize their education, research, and individual professional development. This program includes a three year curriculum with rotating topics and a graduated skill building program.
University of Minnesota
Michael Resnick, PhD
(612) 624-9111
resni001@nullumn.edu
LEAH Program Info
University of Minnesota Summer Institute
Under the leadership of the Center for Adolescent Nursing, School of Nursing (and co-sponsored by the UMN Prevention Research Center, the Konopka Institute, and the Minnesota Department of Education), the annual Healthy Youth Development Summer Institute, now in its 13th year, provides a 4-day intensive learning experience focused on effective strategies for promoting healthy youth development. The Institute includes direct application of a variety of teaching-learning strategies that participants can then utilize in their respective settings.
University of Rochester
Richard E. Kreipe, MD, FAAP, FSAHM, FAED
(585) 275-7844
richard_kreipe@nullurmc.rochester.edu
LEAH Program Info
Textbook of Adolescent Health Care
The Textbook of Adolescent Health Carehas just been published by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Every Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) interdisciplinary training project is represented in both editing (Dr. Richard Kreipe—Rochester LEAH) and interdisciplinary authorship by many of the leaders in the field of adolescent health and medicine at the seven LEAH project sites. The result of several years of collaborative partnerships, the AAP describes this textbook as “trustworthy guidance spanning every aspect of adolescent health care, this truly comprehensive textbook comprises some 2,000 pages richly illustrated with hundreds of full-color visuals…nearly 200 chapters offer timely, topical coverage of the entire universe of adolescent medicine.”
Community Adolescent Health Training Initiative
The Rochester LEAH has created a curriculum to train MCH professionals in community adolescent health, modeled after the Community Pediatrics Training Initiative that originated in Rochester, and is now based at the American Academy of Pediatrics in the Community Pediatrics unit (www.aap.org/commpeds/CPTI/). After being piloted and modified as necessary based on evaluation feedback, this curriculum will be made available to other communities.
Assets Coming Together (ACT) for Youth
For the past seven years, the Rochester LEAH has been involved in positive youth development (PYD) activities in New York State, with special focus on training and evaluation. This collaborative effort, which includes partners at Cornell University and its Cooperative Extension in New York City, the NYS Center for School Safety, the NYS Department of Health, the AIDS Institute, and 12 Collaboratives for Community Change statewide, applies PYD as a public health strategy to address the 21 Critical Health Objectives for youth in Healthy People 2010. These efforts resulted in the publication of a special supplement to the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice and a plenary session at the AMCHP (2007).
