To assist in reducing the rate of teenage pregnancies and provide adolescents with better knowledge of:

• Pregnancy, birthing and parenting
• Life style choices
• Support services that are available

• Parkes Health Service has double the State average of teenage pregnancies and increasing, while the State average is decreasing.
• Teenage mothers identified that teenagers have a lack of knowledge about pregnancy, birthing and parenting, and support services.
• Midwives identified they required the skills of how to facilitate workshops in high schools.

In 2006 & 2007 the high pregnancy and birth rate of teenagers in Parkes and the GWAHS was identified. Parkes Health Service held special antenatal classes for pregnant teenagers and their partners/support people. The evaluations identified the lack of knowledge the teenagers had prior to the antenatal class and that the information should be available at school.

The NSW teenage (15-19yrs) birth rate is 16 per 1,000 teenage girl populations. The NSW teenage birth rate as a percentage of confinements is 4% ( www.women.nsw.gov.au/PDF/FS5Health.pdf)

Antenatal classes and post birth identified the lack of knowledge pregnant teenagers and teenage mothers had prior to the classes and acknowledged how the group would have benefited from similar education in their High Schools.

Midwives identified the lack of skills they believed they had when discussing the possibility of taking midwifery led education into high schools. The Core of Life program was identified through a search of literature and reference to the National Association of Child Birth Educators publications.

This project relates to the New Direction for NSW State Health Plan towards 2010 :

• To keep people healthy
• To provide health care that people need
• To deliver high quality services

The specific strategic directions are :

1. Make prevention everybody’s business:  Health improvement by health promotion of heath and wellness includes lifestyle choices.
3. Strengthen primary health and continuing care in the community: Planning and delivering services to meet the specific needs of the teenage population with a focus on education and prevention.

It also can be linked to the GWAHS strategic plan 3 - Disease prevention and health promotion across all areas.

A business case for Nurse Strategy Funding to provide a Facilitators workshop for the Core of Life for GWAHS staff was submitted and successful. The workshop was held in August 2007, with 29 participants. Twenty four GWAHS employees attended including Midwives, Child and Family Health Nurses, Aboriginal Health workers, Women’s Health Sexual Health Worker from twelve different towns.  Five teachers from three different schools in three different towns attended. Participants attending the workshop were offered the opportunity to access tools and training necessary to deliver the comprehensive recognised Core of Life package into local high schools. Provided in the workshop were information manuals and CDs.

The Core of Life program offers a comprehensive education source for teenagers with an interactive multimedia approach. It is designed to promote a more realistic awareness and responsibility of the potential short and long term consequences of pregnancy and parenthood.

Letters and information packages were sent to the two high schools in Parkes and the smaller high schools in surrounding area. Both high schools in Parkes participate in the program. The program in the schools is a multi media hands on program. All equipment was organised including CD player, TV DVD player, lap top and projector.

At Parkes High School the Core of Life program was provided for four, two hour sessions to year 10 students (aged 15-16yrs) with 23-25 per group (96 students) at Parkes High School. The groups were mixed and one session had two students from the special education department with an assistant. The Parkes Central West Community Christian School has had two 90 minutes session provided to Year 9 & 10 students (22 students). The development of a partnership locally between health and education was and is crucial to the programs success.

The students now have a better understanding of pregnancy, birthing and parenting. They have information about healthy life style choices including breastfeeding and how to access community resources. A long term outcome should be a decrease in teenage pregnancies in Parkes.

Twenty two students (one session) at Parkes High School and 12 students at the Christian School were given pre and post session evaluations.

Comparison of the pre and post questionnaire identified:

• There was a decrease from 21/34 to 8/34 participants respectively identifying they were unsure or did not know where to get help and advice about pregnancy.
• Increase in the age group of when was the best age to have a baby.

 
This education program could assist in helping the GWAHS and State Plan to continue to reduce smoking rates, reduce drinking and illicit drug use (1:S3).

Parkes High School has indicated they would like the program annually for year 10 students. Information packages about the Core of Life have been forwarded to all high schools with in the vicinity of 100 kilometres of Parkes.

There is access to updates about the Core of Life for all facilitators on the  Core of Life Web site.

At present there are two facilitators trained in Parkes since the program has been introduced into the high schools another midwife has indicated she would like to be a facilitator.

The partnership between education and health has enhanced the relationship between health, education and the wider community. The teenagers are given factual knowledge that they can build on and information about how to make healthy life choices. They are provided with information to guide them to access community services when required. This program is a health promotion program. It is transferable state wide with the support of Local Health Services, Area Health Services and the State Government so that the program could be implemented into all NSW secondary schools.

Patient Safety & Clinical Quality Manager, Clinical Governance Unit
Greater Western Area Health Service
Ph: 02 6393 3559