May is recognized across the U.S. as Teen Pregnancy Prevention month, a time to emphasize that too many teens leave pregnancy prevention to chance, and help them understand that making active decisions about preventing pregnancy is a part of taking charge of their futures.
In past years the teen birth rate in Maverick County has been one of the highest in the state and nation. Maverick County Hospital District recognized the problem several years ago and established its Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program to raise awareness of the social ills that teen pregnancy brings. Through the Juntos Podemos Program, Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coordinator Yaraida Diaz has provided vital information to participating youth.
The program’s goal concentrates its efforts in providing adolescents ages 10 through 19 with an evidence-based educational curriculum that informs them on topics such as abstinence and contraception in order to prevent pregnancies, as well as sexually transmitted infections.
The main objective through Juntos Podemos is to recruit and commit youth and adolescents to learn more on abstinence and contraception, enroll youth and adolescents in education programs offered by Juntos Podemos, and participate in the collection of performance measure data collection.
Since then, MCHD has seen a decrease in teen pregnancies in our community and we’re committed to continue providing awareness services to prevent our youth from falling into a statistic that often weighs heavily on their lives, even into adulthood.
Experts state that despite extraordinary declines in teen pregnancy and childbearing across the nation, nearly one in four teens still get pregnant by age 20 and progress remains uneven.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR JUNTOS PODEMOS PROGRAM OR TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT, PLEASE CONTACT US AT (830) 757-4900 or(830) 757-4901.
