Is it in critical condition?

Mr. Jay Cohen

Grace Dodge Career and Technical High School

jayjcohen@hotmail.com

Children who face prejudice and discrimination and a lack of quality health care by virtue of their identity, life experience, or family circumstances disproportionately experience the poorest health care in New York City. Such young people may include youth of color, those from low-income families, immigrants, and other minorities. Research often focuses on the socioeconomic factors—such as poverty, family distress, and access to health care

Evaluating a pre-teen and teenage access to health care and social services by examining fee schedules, hours of operation, locations, the availability of public transportation, and laws and policies on confidentiality reveals how woefully inadequate these vital health services are during the formative years.

You and your partner have been chosen to participate in a special investigation by the New York City Department of Health in conjunction with the Department of Education to learn the causes currently undermining the adolescent health care system and to attempt to find a solution. As part of your team you will evaluate current public health policies and attempt to ascertain why they are failing. You will conduct your investigation using the PPA methods and procedures we have discussed and worked on.

The results of your research and investigation will culminate in a multimedia PowerPoint presentation discussing your findings.

You are going to work in pairs and research the reasons for the deteriorating state of adolescent health care in New York City. You and your partner are going to follow a line of investigation into the nature and causes of this problem develop possible alternative solutions. The results of your research will be a multimedia powerpoint presentation in which you present your findings to the class.

• Define the problem:
• You and your partner will each attempt to identify at least 3 problems undermining the health care New York City youth currently receive. Record your findings on worksheet #1 which you find on the TIPS website.
• Gather evidence :
• I have provided you with some helpful links in the RESOURCES section to help you get you started on your research. Use TIPS worksheet#2 to record the evidence that illustrates the current state of teen health care in the New York City.
• Identify causes :
• Using worksheet#3 record your findings about the circumstances that are the causes of the inadequate or substandard care that many New York City teenagers receive. Be as specific a possible in defining the causes. Do these inadequacies result from incompetence, neglect, inadequate funding, etc.?
• Evaluate the current policy:
• How much of the poor treatment many teens receive is the result of faltering or failing public policies? Using worksheet #4 you are going to examine and evaluate current public policy governing adolescent health care in New York City and try to figure out why more and more children are receiving fewer and fewer quality services that might prevent a major health crisis from disrupting their lives in the future.
• Develop solutions :
• Now comes the most difficult part – DEVELOPING SOLUTIONS and NEW APPROACHES to this rapidly growing problem. Using PPA worksheet#5 you are going develop possible solutions to deal more effectively with very serious threat to the future of our city’s youth.
• Select best solution :
• After you have come up with several different solutions you then must select the one most likely to be accepted and adopted by the city fathers. Worksheet#6 will assist you in selecting the most practical solution that you and your group developed.
  

Resources

I have provided the following links to help get you started on your research to help find the causes and new solutions to the problem of violence in our schools. This is not a comprehensive list but it is a beginning --- something to get you started. You should not restrict yourself only to these sites and sources. Each member of your group must use at least 3 resources while conducting their investigation.

www.nyc.gov/html/doh/pdf/epi/disparities-2004.pdf

http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/immun/immunization.htm

http://www.adolescentaids.org/medpsy.html

http://www.focusas.com/NewYork.html

http://www.mhaofnyc.org/4CAserv.html

http://www.childrensaidsociety.org/locations_services/healthservices/hcap

http://www.ocfs.state.ny.us/main/sppd/health_services/links.asp

http://www.nyclu.org/rrp_rppt8.html

http://www.ldonline.org/finding_help/local_org/nyork.html

http://www.cdfny.org/RR/CDFreports.htm (good analysis of current public policy)

http://www.childrenshealthfund.org/decade.html

http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/consumer/nyc/nyc.htm

www.naswdc.org/practice/adolescent_health/ah0503.pdf

http://www.momsandkids.org/momsnkids/teenunit/teenorg_ahec.html

http://www.ahrq.gov/research/childr98.htm

Evaluation:

You and your partner are going prepare a PowerPoint presentation for the class informing them of your discoveries and suggesting possible solutions to the adolescent health care crisis in New York City.

Your presentation will be evaluated according to the following rubric:

	85 to 100 Excellent	75 to 84 Satisfactory	65 to 74 Fair	Less than 65 Poor (Do Over!)
Understanding Of the Task	Students logical with an excellent working knowledge of material and the audience.	Student has a good working knowledge of material and the audience.	Student presentation is somewhat clear, but not engaging to the audience.	Student has very little understanding of the material and the audience for whom they are addressing.
Development and Organization of the presentation	Very well organized and presented.	Good organization and development.	Some organization but needs more development.	Very organization and development. Confusing information.
PPA Skills	Clear evidence of using several PPA resources and new resources.	Evidence of PPA resource use.	Little evidence of PPA resources.	No apparent use of PPA resources or understanding.
Vocabulary	Excellent use of vocabulary and appropriate language	Good use of vocabulary and language.	Weak word usage. Language development is poor.	Poor vocabulary skills and language usage.
Grammar and Punctuation	Excellent use of grammar and punctuation.	Good grammar and punctuation, has few errors.	Weak grammar and punctuation with too many errors.	Poor grammar and punctuation with so many errors that make comprehension impossible.

1. Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

2. Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis.

3. Students will read, write, listen, and speak social interaction.

At the conclusion of this WebQuest on the quality of Child Health Care in New York City each student will have developed a better understanding the causes and reasons the health care system is failing our city’s children and will become part of the solution helping to implement more effective policies to deal with this ever-growing problem.

Students will have also demonstrate their mastery of PowerPoint and their ability to use this tool to create innovative and interesting multimedia presentations that are scholarly as well as informative.