| Appendix A: Qualitative
Findings
Child & Adolescent
Issues
child health
child
health
As to concerns for
children’s health, these social services agents mentioned poor immunization rates and
late diagnosis of developmental disabilities in infants.
"We’re still seeing
just over 50 percent of the two-year-olds that are totally up on their immunizations, but
we’re one of the best counties in the state."
— Social Services Representative
"The average age of
diagnosis for a baby for [issues that were present at birth] is not until 7 months of
age… So, there’s a huge under-diagnosing that goes on in this county that’s
rich with docs."
— Social Services Representative
"I sat at a table a couple
weeks ago with some school principals, we have a really good task force on children and
youth. There was a pediatrician at the table, too. What I’ve seen repeatedly is that
the health care community does not
know what’s going on in the schools. In most communities
there are no school nurses anymore."
— Social Services Representative
adolescent health
adolescent
health
In regard to adolescent
health, participants said teenagers need places where they feel comfortable accessing
health care services, such as school-based clinics.
"In this county, there are
only two adolescent health centers, health centers that are set up specifically to serve
adolescent populations. And adolescents, because they don’t get sick a lot,
they’re not going to go, and because they don’t really feel comfortable going to
large medical institutions, it’s very difficult. Sometimes they don’t seek
medical care they need related to their sexual issues, substance abuse issues, mental
health issues."
— Social Services Representative
"I think California as a
whole lags behind other states in providing school-based health centers for
teenagers… The two centers that we have in San Mateo County are school-linked,
they’re not on the school campuses. In other parts of the Bay Area, there are actual
clinics that are set up on the high school campuses, which I think is a really good way to
do it if they can provide access to a large number of kids. We chose to set up ours 8
years ago off campus so that it could serve all of the teenagers in the Daly City and
Pacifica area, which is the area that spans the school district boundaries. As we’ve
progressed we’ve realized that the needs are so great and we’ve just kept
expanding in terms of trying to provide a more holistic approach, a more comprehensive
approach."
— Social Services Representative
"There’s still a lot
of adolescents that cannot get services in all parts of the county. In the Taft School
area, it’s about 72 percent Latinos. Many of them do not want to go over to the Fair
Oaks Clinic for a whole host of different reasons. The insular difficulties that
they’re experiencing just really speak to the necessity of clinics within the site. I
know that’s not always possible, but your mobile unit is also wonderful. If there
were more flexibility with the use of that and probably more publicity surrounding that,
we could probably get more young people involved."
— Social Services Representative
Other adolescent health issues
that concerned participants include self-esteem, stress, sexuality, gangs, and substance
abuse.
"The American Association
of the University of Women, as most of you know, did this study and they found that for
Latino girls, their self-esteem took a dive of about 37 percent [between the ages of 9 and
15] and for Anglos it took a dive of about 32 percent. These are young women who are going
to have babies in a decade, more or less, they’re going to raise the Anglo leaders,
the Latino leaders. I think that we need to do everything we can to provide after-school
recreation programs, after-school mentoring programs. This would include health education
curriculum. I think we need to do what we can to provide role models. I see issues like
that as being really important long term: how to take more charge of your health care, how
to be educated and have some self-esteem so you can make wise choices for yourself and
your family."
— Social Services Representative
"[Youth are saying] that
sexuality is being addressed peripherally. A lot of teens have issues regarding their own
sexuality, what is important to them, how they view it, and who they can and cannot go to
to speak to about their decisions in life. Another one is academics. The stress factor in
San Carlos, which is a unique community, the academic stress is extremely high and
there’s suicide issues and drug issues that are going on with kids at high
academics."
— Social Services Representative
"We also are looking at
trying to maintain a healthy attitude in our community in regard to gangs and drug abuse.
We have a number of programs that are set into play and the kids feel that that is very,
very important and they urged our City Council to put their funds in that area."
— Social Services Representative
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