For those of you who do not know, I was born and raised in Staten Island, New York. Staten Island is my home and has an important place in my heart. However, the health of Staten Islanders is a serious issue, specifically rampant drug abuse of heroin and prescription painkillers. South Shore Staten Island (where I’m from) has the second highest overdose rate in the NYC area. In order to help fight this issue, I propose we donate our money to the Staten Island Partnership for Community Wellness. The SIPCW is the major community health organization in Staten Island. They consider themselves to be the “backbone” of public health initiatives in Staten Island and have a variety of programs that address the health issues in Staten Island.
They are currently working on 5 major programs including
- Behavioral Health Infrastructure Project: a project to integrate behavioral health
services into Staten Island
- Partnership for a Healthier Staten Island: a coalition to combat various sources of
unhealthiness such as chronic diseases, poor nutrition, and physical inactivity
- Take Care New York 2020: a program focused on improving health equity across
the city by examining traditional health factors and social factors
- Child Wellness Initiative: a program focused on combating child obesity
The fifth program is one that I am especially passionate about and it deals with the drug abuse problem I mentioned previously. It is called TYSA, or Tackling Youth Substance Abuse. The SIPCW describes TYSA as “a coalition of people and organizations who have come together with a mission to decrease youth and young adult substance misuse on Staten Island.” Their main goal is to decrease substance abuse in adolescents and young adults through educational and training programs. They also educate and train parents and teachers on how they can act in emergency situations, such as an overdose. Another TYSA initiative is to persuade medical professionals to prescribe less prescription painkillers and seek alternative remedies. Staten Island has the worst prescription painkiller overdose rate in the state. Many heroin users begin their addictions through prescription painkillers and opioids.
A headline from August 2017 read, “29 overdoses in 24 days on Staten Island.” Our nation is facing an opioid and heroin epidemic and Staten Island is one of the main reasons why. This issue is incredibly serious. When I was in high school, the District Attorney gave an assembly about this epidemic. One thing he said really stuck with me. He said, “I help prosecute heroin users because I know every user we don’t arrest is going to end up in a body bag.”
The reason I believe TYSA is a great program to donate to is that they intervene and educate young adults. They understand that solving this issue means getting to the root of the issue. We are not going to solve this epidemic in a week. Educating present and future generations of students, teachers, and doctors is the only way this epidemic has a chance of ever being solved. TYSA is an educational and training program focused on the youth but they are also partnered with multiple resource centers to help those currently struggling with addiction.
I highlighted the work of the TYSA program because this is an issue I care very deeply about but the SIPCW’s other programs are also incredible. The BHIP program is focused on mental health outreach, Take Care New York 2020 is focused on promoting health equity, the Child Wellness Initiative is fighting child obesity, and the Partnership for a Healthier Staten Island is combating various sources of unhealthiness. The SIPCW is committed to improving the overall health of Staten Islanders. All the work the SIPCW does is fantastic but the TYSA program is especially influential. We have learned about how bad substance abuse is in Broome County and it is even worse in Staten Island. Programs like TYSA are the first step to help rid our cities and our nation of this horrible epidemic. I hope you agree that our funds should be donated to the SIPCW.
They are currently working on 5 major programs including
- Behavioral Health Infrastructure Project: a project to integrate behavioral health
services into Staten Island
- Partnership for a Healthier Staten Island: a coalition to combat various sources of
unhealthiness such as chronic diseases, poor nutrition, and physical inactivity
- Take Care New York 2020: a program focused on improving health equity across
the city by examining traditional health factors and social factors
- Child Wellness Initiative: a program focused on combating child obesity
The fifth program is one that I am especially passionate about and it deals with the drug abuse problem I mentioned previously. It is called TYSA, or Tackling Youth Substance Abuse. The SIPCW describes TYSA as “a coalition of people and organizations who have come together with a mission to decrease youth and young adult substance misuse on Staten Island.” Their main goal is to decrease substance abuse in adolescents and young adults through educational and training programs. They also educate and train parents and teachers on how they can act in emergency situations, such as an overdose. Another TYSA initiative is to persuade medical professionals to prescribe less prescription painkillers and seek alternative remedies. Staten Island has the worst prescription painkiller overdose rate in the state. Many heroin users begin their addictions through prescription painkillers and opioids.
A headline from August 2017 read, “29 overdoses in 24 days on Staten Island.” Our nation is facing an opioid and heroin epidemic and Staten Island is one of the main reasons why. This issue is incredibly serious. When I was in high school, the District Attorney gave an assembly about this epidemic. One thing he said really stuck with me. He said, “I help prosecute heroin users because I know every user we don’t arrest is going to end up in a body bag.”
The reason I believe TYSA is a great program to donate to is that they intervene and educate young adults. They understand that solving this issue means getting to the root of the issue. We are not going to solve this epidemic in a week. Educating present and future generations of students, teachers, and doctors is the only way this epidemic has a chance of ever being solved. TYSA is an educational and training program focused on the youth but they are also partnered with multiple resource centers to help those currently struggling with addiction.
I highlighted the work of the TYSA program because this is an issue I care very deeply about but the SIPCW’s other programs are also incredible. The BHIP program is focused on mental health outreach, Take Care New York 2020 is focused on promoting health equity, the Child Wellness Initiative is fighting child obesity, and the Partnership for a Healthier Staten Island is combating various sources of unhealthiness. The SIPCW is committed to improving the overall health of Staten Islanders. All the work the SIPCW does is fantastic but the TYSA program is especially influential. We have learned about how bad substance abuse is in Broome County and it is even worse in Staten Island. Programs like TYSA are the first step to help rid our cities and our nation of this horrible epidemic. I hope you agree that our funds should be donated to the SIPCW.
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ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHi David,
I really enjoyed your post and I love the mission of Staten Island Partnership for Community Wellness. In class, one of our main issue areas was the opioid crisis in Broome county, but sadly none of the organizations pertaining to this area was chosen. Therefore, I am glad you mentioned an organization that is trying to combat a related issue, as it is growing and affects many communities and families throughout the United States. However, when you started talking about the TYSA program I grew slightly weary because it sounded a lot like D.A.R.E. I mean when you are kid, are you actually listening to an old man talking about what you should say no to? I know most of the kids in my school fell asleep halfway through most of those programs.For anyone who does not know about D.A.R.E., it is an educational program that goes to schools to try and empower kids not to do drugs or partake in other dangerous behaviors. At face value these educational programs seem beneficial because they “teach them while they are young”, but many studies have shown that these programs are ineffective and can be counterproductive. I mean D.A.R.E. began in 1983 and now we are in an opioid crisis, so it obviously can’t be that effective. In fact, a study at Indiana University showed that most alumni of the D.A.R.E. program had significantly higher rates of drug use than those not exposed to it. This just goes to show that maybe teaching kids to “say no to drugs” is not the best way at fixing the issue. Therefore, after reading your post I looked more into TYSA to see how their educational program works and was happy to find out the program is much more than just a program to teach people about why they should not do drugs. On their website, TYSA mentions that it uses collective impact, something we have talked about in class, and something that I believe makes a significant difference on the effectiveness of an organization. I believe collective impact is beneficial because organizations are using resources and knowledge from a variety of places rather than just their own. The TYSA program is not only focusing on teaching kids or doctors, it takes a much more active approach within the community. The site mentions that they actually train multiple professionals like pharmacists, physicians, and even beverage servers. I have never heard of a nonprofit training beverage servers to combat substance abuse, but I believe it is a great idea because they face issues with people and substance abuse on a daily basis. This is such an easy way to make small differences in the community that most people would not think of. In addition, the program also advocates for system-level change in local, state, and federal levels. This is important because it is looking at making a more widespread and hopefully long term change. Therefore, after looking over their website I realized that the TYSA program seems like it is taking a very strategic approach at a very complicated issue. Unlike what I had first thought, it is connecting the many actors in the community that have an effect on the levels of substance abuse and bringing them together to create a comprehensive action plan to combat the problem. I believe SIPCW would be a great organization to donate our money to.
Sources:
https://dare.org/gclid=Cj0KCQjw7Z3VBRCARIsAEQifZRdoclcpdMsry2crlZshq4mWasihoJMAxio9L2j920YTeatamGtR_4aAncrEALw_wcB
https://www.livescience.com/33795-effective.html
http://sipcw.org/tysa-at-a-glance/
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteUpon reading about your organization, I cannot help but to draw comparisons to the recent in-class discussion about the opioid crisis. We, as a class, did not select any organizations presented by the group focused on the opioid crisis to be in the top five. I personally perceived this as a result of the belief of many people in this class that the opioid crisis is largely a result of underlying issues such as poverty and education (I cannot confirm nor deny this; it is just an assumption). On the other hand, I commend your argument in the regard that your organization takes initiative to educate present and future generations about this issue area, as I personally perceive the lack of education about drugs as one of the "underlying issues" of the countrywide war on drugs. If your organization has such an influence that it has the ability to successfully inform the general public about the problems within today's society, then I believe that it would be a fine cause to support. However, I wish you provided some general statistics on what the TYSA has done, in addition to the mean amount of donations, etc. From what you are saying, it seems like the SIPCW is a bit of a small scale organization, centered in Staten Island, with some large scale influence around the five-burrows. Without any general information, however, it is hard to pinpoint how large of an influence this organization truly emits.
Overall, I thought you did a fantastic job of introducing us to an organization which not only has a careful, thorough approach to the substantial drug problem in today's society, but which also focuses on one of the-of what I believe is-one of the underlying issue areas causing it. Had you provided a few general statistics on the organization, you would have me fully convinced that this is a good balance of head and heart and, therefore, an organization worth donating to.
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteYour passion to help the Staten Island community resonates with me, since I too was raised in Staten Island for a large portion of my childhood, and my family have been living in Todt Hill, Staten Island for almost ten years. And here is a fun fact, the Staten Island Partnership for Community Wellness is actually located no more than 15 minutes by bus from where I live.
Besides that, I am truly glad that you brought up the issue of drug abuse, a problem which not only persists in Staten Island but also in a number of areas in the US, Broome County included.
I recall the class discussion we had a few weeks before on why there isn't one organization that helps with drug problems made our finalist. I think the reason that it is widely overlooked by many of us is because of our feeling towards the nature of the use of illegal drugs, how it is often in the same conversation as taboo activities such as gang violence, law breaking and irresponsible behaviors. Plus, drug abuse is often being perceived as voluntary, which led many people to believe that those suffer from drug addiction bring the problem on themselves. In fact, many of these perceptions are false. Many of us don't realize that a large percentage of people in the recent opioid epidemic develops drug dependence from doctor prescriptions, and the withdrawal from drug is extremely difficult to overcome more so for someone at a young age.
I think this is a very important issue to address, because when a person becomes addicted to drugs, it not only ruins this person's life, it would often bring the whole family down. So, if we want to contribute to the cause, it is a very good to start from our own community and move on from there. The TYSA program seems to have the potential to help many lives in the Staten Island community, I bet it is a program of the SIPCW that is worth our attention.