Funded Projects

Problem:

Youth residing in economically disadvantaged communities are at greatest risk for many of the common morbidities of adolescents. There is a need for public health leaders trained in innovative and effective interdisciplinary approaches to adolescent health to address adolescent health disparities.

Goals and Objectives:

Goal 1: To increase the number of professionals working in the fields of nursing, social work, medicine, psychology, and nutrition who have mastered core competency in adolescent health and leadership. Objective 1: By the end of Year 5, 5 post-residency medical fellows will have successfully completed their long-term training fellowship in Adolescent Medicine and be eligible for sub-specialty certification. Objective 2: By the end of Year 5, 5 masters or doctoral level nurses, 4 masters or doctoral level social workers, 3 post doctoral psychologists, and 2 doctoral level students in nutrition will have completed their long-term training in the program: Goal 2: To increase the racial/ethnic diversity and cultural competency of scientists, clinicians, educators and policy makers focused on reducing disparities in adolescent health. Objective 1: By the end of the project period, 50% of physicians completing the program will be from a disadvantaged background or under-represented racial/ethnic group. Objective 2: By the end of the project period, 40% of the non-MD trainees completing the program will be from a disadvantaged background or under-represented racial/ethnic group. Goal 3: To develop new interdisciplinary approaches to reducing morbidity and mortality among disadvantaged youth. Objective 1: Each year, all trainees and fellows participate in a case-based curriculum that utilizes an interdisciplinary approach and is focused on reducing disparities in adolescent health. Goal 4: To improve the capacity of public health professionals in Region III to deliver evidence-based, positive youth development oriented programs to the region's population of young people. Objective 1: By the end of the project period, all 5 states and Washington, DC will have a positive youth development plan for adolescent health programming. Objective 2: By the end of project period, adolescent health coordinators in all 6 Region III locales will have developed strategies to address obesity prevention and reduction among youth, HIV prevention and STI reduction with special attention to economically disadvantages populations.

Methodology:

We have chosen to categorize training into 4 core components: Leadership; Adolescent Base Knowledge and Context; Research, and MCH/Title V and Related Legislation. While various strategies will be utilized in the Leadership component of the curriculum, the main methodology will involve the Advanced Leadership Seminar which is a case-based approach to leadership training. Additional activities will include discipline-specific mentoring, courses and seminars on research ethics, courses in public health leadership, grant writing seminar, trainee presentations, and media training symposium. Core adolescent health knowledge and context training is incorporated at all levels including practice, teaching, research, advocacy, and leadership. Core research activities will include participation in the weekly Research Seminar, presentation at journal club, and a research project. The core MCH/Title V and Related Legislation activity will involve the Maternal and Child Health Seminar and Advanced Leadership Seminar.

Coordination:

The program will maintain active collaboration with MCHB, regional state and local MCH agencies within PHS Region III, other MCHB training programs, and local or regional community-and-clinic-based adolescent health promotion and disease prevention programs.

Evaluation:

Trainees' progress towards accomplishment of core objectives will be evaluated using individualized learning agreements, self-evaluation, 360 degree evaluators, faculty feedback, and written exams from coursework. Feedback will be completed semi-annually. The program will also be evaluated by the trainees and by assessment of achievement of goals and objectives. The program will be reviewed by the core faculty semi-annually, summarized, and reviewed by the External Advisory Committee annually.

Experience to Date:

Over the course of the project year we have provided over one hundred hours of instructions to our interdisciplinary group and reached a total estimate of 150 hours of accredited instruction by the end of June, 2011. Over the past year, we celebrated the completion of program by 1 Social Work trainee, 2 Nursing trainees, and 1 RD Master's level Nutrition trainee and 1 Post-Doctoral Psychology trainee. This group has been extremely productive. We contributed 2 platform presentations, 6 posters and 2 workshops to this year's Annual meeting of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Moreover, the highlight of the year was the hosting of the Third Annual JHU Region III LEAH Health Disparities Conference with keynote presentations by two internationally recognized figures.