Disasters and Youth: Editorial Perspective

~ By Colette

I’ve recently signed off on the “press proof” of our September 2008 issue. The theme of this issue is “Disasters and Youth.” We chose this as a focus after a survey with our readers suggested they wanted more information about disasters. In fact, of the 18 topics we had asked about “Trauma and Disasters” came in among the top three.

While disasters and their effects on youth is a topic that is very relevant for our staff – since our community was the site of one of the infamous school shootings (at Thurston High School in 1998) – I was concerned about how relevant the topic would be for our average reader. Beyond the well-known disasters (Hurricane Katrina, September 11), are community-wide disasters something people commonly experience? How many people experience community-wide disasters in any given year?

In the time since we chose to focus on “Disasters and Youth,” there have been several disasters within the U.S. including a bridge collapse in Minneapolis, wild fires in California which displaced thousands, and flooding in the mid-west. Beyond these well publicized disasters there have been smaller scales ones, such as flooding here in Oregon last winter that caused the small town of Vernonia to be evacuated.

In one of The Prevention Researcher’s recent online polls, 57% of respondents indicated that in the last 10 years their community had experienced a community-wide disaster (21% experienced a nature-caused disaster, 21% a human-caused disaster, and 16% both nature- and human-caused disasters). While our online polls are hardly scientific, I was still surprised by these large numbers.

Possibly one of the most important points brought out in our upcoming issue is that because disasters are usually unpredictable, you need to put effort into becoming prepared. While most people can’t prevent disasters, they can help prevent long-term mental health problems by developing safety plans before a crisis occurs.

There are numerous web sites which could be useful in helping to prepare for a disaster, they include the American Red Cross which provides preparedness information for families, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency which provides information for schools.

Charter Schools Offer Choice and a Chance

~ By Brooke

As a relatively recent college graduate, I have been giving thought to my career, as have many of my friends.  There are friends of mine who have begun their careers as teachers in charter schools who have been pleased with their career decisions.  Now, as I have recently started working with The Prevention Researcher, I am becoming more aware of adolescents and their struggles, one of them being school.  While charter schools serve a wide population, generally they tend to serve students who may be overlooked or who are having difficulty in traditional public schools.

 

Charter schools have been around since the late eighties, and only 40 states have laws pertaining to the creation and oversight of charter schools.   They offer an alternative for parents and students as they seek the right school.  Some parents spend a great deal of time considering alternatives to public school.  Now, with increasing popularity they are able to consider charter schools as well. This new education option creates an atmosphere of competition and accountability, which both benefit the students. 

 

In urban communities especially, parents often become disenchanted with some aspect of traditional public schools and seek other options.  I found this linked article by Becca Blond at Bnet in which parents turn to charter schools for a better fit with their child.  With the ability to create their own rules and curriculum, charter schools and teachers can better tailor lessons to their students’ learning styles and interests.  Some have longer days, go year round and maintain smaller classes than many of the nearby public schools.  Along with this freedom comes the great responsibility to remain accountable by producing results.  In their 2003 research study, Jay Green, Greg Forster and Marcus Winters compared charter schools to nearby traditional public schools.  Their findings concluded that charter schools serving “general student populations” performed better than their public school counterparts by approximately three percentile points in math and two in reading.

 

 These findings are encouraging, and I think it can be attributed to the smaller classes and adapted style of the schools.  Charter schools offer parents, teachers and most importantly, students ,a choice.  I am interested to see what the future holds for charter schools, their students and the education system in general.

Cigarette Warning Labels

~ By Colette

Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to vacation in Portugal. As I was walking down the lovely cobblestone streets in Evora a discarded cigarette pack caught my eye, the ”Smoking Kills” warning label took up almost half the package (conveniently this pack was written in English). Later, I found a discarded pack written in Portuguese and it occurred to me to look at both sides. Translated with the help of Google one side says “Smoking kills” the other “Smoking causes fatal lung cancer.” This is a much different approach than the cigarette warning labels used in the U.S.

    

  I wondered:
  Is this approach more effective than the warning labels used in the US?
  Are cigarette warning labels effective or do smokers just ignore them?
  Do warning labels impact adolescents’ decisions to smoke?

Back at work I looked for answers. According to international research by David Hammond and colleagues (appearing in a 2006 issue of Tobacco Control and a 2007 issue of American Journal of Preventive Medicine), cigarette warning labels are a source of health information and an effective means for communicating about risks for specific diseases. Warnings that are comprehensive and graphic (such as those in Canada which include images) or which are periodically revised (such as recent changes in the U.K.) are more likely to be effective and noticed.

While this research was conducted with adults, a 2008 review of the research conducted by Dr. Hammond suggests that youth may be especially responsive to picture warnings of the dangers of smoking. Available from the Canadian-based Tobacco Labelling Resource Centre, the Tobacco Labelling & Packaging Toolkit includes color photographs of cigarette packs from around the world. I encourage anyone curious about cigarette warning labels (or cigarette packaging in general) to browse through this document. It is clear that the U.S. has much room for improvement when it comes to creating warning labels which will successfully prevent and reduce cigarette smoking.