|
|
|
|
|
Home > News
|
| Tuesday, May 31, 2011
|
|
Contact: Debra Thompson
Director, RMH Corporate Communications
540-564-5886
The American Hospital Association (AHA) has recognized the Strong Families/Great Youth Coalition’s “Toward No Tobacco” program in its annual report, “Caring for Communities,” which highlights best community health practices.
Through the “Toward No Tobacco” (TNT) program, more than 2,400 seventh-graders graders in Harrisonburg, Rockingham County and Augusta County schools participate annually in a two-week evidence-based tobacco prevention class. The class is taught by an RMH respiratory therapist and staff from RMH Community Health. A follow-up two-day workshop is provided for all eighth-graders.
TNT also provides for outreach and education at community events and conducts community-wide assessments. TNT is funded through local state and federal funds, including a $75,000 annual grant from the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Children.
“TNT helps raise students’ awareness of misleading social information, helps them develop skills that counteract social pressure to use tobacco, and provides them with information about the physical consequences of tobacco use, such as addiction,” said Tonya Osinkosky, health education and awareness coordinator, RMH Community Health.
When the TNT program was introduced in 1998, 34 percent of eighth-graders reported using tobacco monthly. By 2010, that number was down to 19 percent, Osinkosky said. Concurrently, in 1998, the average age of onset for using tobacco was 12 years; by 2010, it had increased to 13 years.
When the TNT program began, it provided outreach to students in Rockingham and Augusta Counties. In 2010, the RMH Foundation awarded a $5,660 grant to the Strong Families/Great Youth Coalition to expand the program to Harrisonburg City middle schools.
RMH is a co-leading agency for the Strong Families/Great Youth Coalition, along with the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Community Services Board.
The coalition, which serves the Harrisonburg-Rockingham County area, was formed to promote
increased collaboration, reduce duplication of services, coordinate funding efforts, collect data and increase environmental efforts to positively affect the community’s perception of youth and youth behaviors and respond to emerging needs.
Visit Strong Families/Great Youth Coalition at www.sfgyc.com or find them on Facebook and Twitter.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) represents and serves close to 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 40,000 individual members. To read the 2011 report, click here. (See pg. 16.)
|
|
|
|
Virtual Tour
Planning a visit to RMH? Take a tour of our campus before you come.
Talk to Us
RMH appreciates your feedback.
Sign up for updates and news from RMH!
Enter your email address below to receive health and news updates from RMHOnline.com!
|