McLeod Dillon has collaborated with CareSouth Carolina, the Dillon County Boys and Girls Youth Center and Dillon School District 4 to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in Dillon County.
Teen pregnancy prevention programming is an effective way to reduce teen pregnancy, yet the programming is often not made available for a variety of reasons. Often, public support is a factor when it comes to health education programming in schools.
The South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy commissioned a survey several years ago to gain insight into the public’s perception of teen pregnancy and sexual health education.
The vast majority of South Carolinians are concerned about teen pregnancy, and 95% rate teen pregnancy as a somewhat or very important problem in their community.
While most residents believe that sexual education emphasizing abstinence as the first and best option to prevent teen pregnancy, many realize that the benefits and importance of using contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases should be taught in school.
In a Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the CDC, 48% of high school students said they have had sex, and only 59% of those students said they used a condom the last time they had sex.
While South Carolina’s teen pregnancy rate has declined over the last few years, Dillon County ranks 11th in state for teen pregnancies. Nearly a third of births by teen mothers is a repeat birth.
Almost half of the babies born to teen mothers live in poverty, and most births are funded by Medicaid. Teen pregnancy costs South Carolina taxpayers an estimated $166 million annually.
When it comes to sexual health, Dillon County ranks No. 3 out of 46 counties for cases of Chlamydia and No. 4 for cases of Gonorrhea, both sexually transmitted infections. The number of cases of Chlamydia in Dillon County is more than double the state rates for South Carolina and North Carolina, as well as the national average.
The numbers for Dillon County are surprising—and frightening, so several agencies have banded together to make a difference in the health of the community’s youth. Coordinated by McLeod Dillon, the group consists of Dillon School District 4, CareSouth Carolina and the Dillon County Boys and Girls Youth Center. The group was awarded a grant in 2016, through the Personal Responsibility Education Program, or PREP.
PREP received federal funding under the Affordable Care Act of 2010, and funds are administered through DHEC to serve high-risk youth across the state. Grants are competitive, and awarded to priority counties only.
PREP has two primary goals:
1. To educate youth on BOTH abstinence and contraception for the prevention of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS
2. To educated youth on at least 3 of 6 adult preparation skills
PREP uses evidence-based, age-appropriate interventions, proven to change behavior, and provides medically accurate and complete information. PREP education complies with the guidelines set by the Comprehensive Health Education Act (CHEA).
The CHEA was established in 1988 to ensure South Carolina students receive an age-appropriate, comprehensive education program developed with community control. Sexual education is only a small portion of comprehensive health. Under the CHEA, parents are notified in advance of the students’ participation in Sexual Education, and have the opportunity to review materials and exempt their children.
All instruction, regardless of age-level, stresses abstinence until marriage as the first and best choice for all youth. Research shows that comprehensive sexual education does not encourage sexual activity but in fact delays the onset of first intercourse.
Reproductive health instructors in Dillon School District Four have attended required training sessions to become familiar with a new evidence-based curriculum (“Making a Difference!”, “Making Proud Choices!”, “Be Proud, Be Responsible!”) that has proven to be effective in reducing teenage pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. The curricula will be used with students in grades 7-9 in Dillon and Lake View. Instructors include physical education/health teachers, science teachers and/or JROTC instructors depending on courses students are assigned. The curricula reinforces the fact that abstinence is the best way to reduce the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease and it is the best way to prevent teenage pregnancy. However, the units also inform students about effective uses of contraception if they are sexually active.
Parents are provided opportunities to view the units to be taught at the middle/high schools. They may also exempt their child from the reproductive health units with no academic penalty if they opt to do so. The administration sees this change in curricula as timely and of utmost importance to combat staggering county, state and national figures noted above and most importantly to help teens in Dillon County to lead a healthy lifestyle now and in the future. Dillon School District Four is striving to teach skills to help students become college and career ready, however, their health and safety is of utmost importance and cannot be overlooked.
The Dillon County Boys and Girls Youth Center is also an implementation partner for the program. The Dillon County Boys and Girls Youth Center was founded 2013 on the vision and belief that every young person has the right to a safe place to learn and grow, to be empowered and free from violence. The center seeks to establish a better quality of life for the youth of Dillon County and to provide the tools and a safe place for them to obtain educational success. The center aims to educate and conduct training on social problems such as dealing with peer pressure, bullying and character development.
The third implementation partner for the program is CareSouth Carolina. For over thirty years, CareSouth Carolina has served as a medical home – a place where people experience healing, caring relationships that transform lives and communities for the better. CareSouth Carolina has three locations in Dillon County—Dillon, Latta and Lake View.
These partners will collaborate with the local DHEC health center to expand access to quality, teen-friendly family planning services for adolescents. DHEC is currently making renovations for a “teen-friendly” area in the Dillon center. The area will offer teens security and privacy as they come for services.
In addition to the curriculum being taught, the grant also calls for a diverse and engaged Community Work Group, to be led by McLeod Dillon. The Community Work Group will improve education and informational offerings for parents to increase parent-child communication about love, sex and relationships. Increased parental connectedness has been proven to delay onset of first sexual intercourse, lower overall rates of sexual activity and increase rates of contraceptive use. The Group will also work to increase the number and utilization of teen-friendly condom access points in the community.
The community-wide effort led by McLeod Dillon, CareSouth Carolina, the Dillon County Boys and Girls Youth Center and Dillon School District 4 is a step in the right direction for Dillon County. Many individuals have banded together with the same objective – to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and to improve the overall health of Dillon County’s youth.
