Outreach plan gains success
By Jo Deeks on Thursday, 8th March 2001.
A PROJECT to tackle teenage pregnancy rates in Haverhill, which are the highest in Suffolk, is attracting national attention.
And in a further bid to nearly halve the number of teenage pregnancies by 2010, Suffolk health Authority has adopted a new strategy.
Previous efforts to reduce teenage pregnancies had not been very successful and had relied too much on sex education.
Between 1992 and 1997, Haverhill had 115 girls under 18 getting pregnant.
This was the highest rate (32.6 per 1,000 girls) in nine of the larger towns which accounted for almost two-thirds of all pregnancies in this age group in Suffolk. The Clements ward was sited as having a significantly high rate of teenage pregnancies, with a rate of 47.2.
Susan Dey, local teenage pregnancy co-ordinator for Suffolk Health, said more recent figures for the county were showed rates were rising slightly overall.
She said: "I would agree with Brian Keeble, Director of Health, in that there is a direct correlation between high pregnancy rates and areas of social deprivation and poverty. These are increased risk factors.
"In Haverhill, for the last three years we have had a very successful outreach project, A detached youth worker and a health worker go out to take the message to young people where they are, rather than expect them to come to us.
"It is very difficult to find a direct correlation between that and a drop in the rates, which only come out every two years, but we believe it has been very successful. It has been mentioned in a national report on teenage pregnancy and people elsewhere are looking to do the same thing."
The success of the outreach project could now mean its expansion to other parts of the county.
And in a further bid to nearly halve the number of teenage pregnancies by 2010, Suffolk health Authority has adopted a new strategy.
Previous efforts to reduce teenage pregnancies had not been very successful and had relied too much on sex education.
Between 1992 and 1997, Haverhill had 115 girls under 18 getting pregnant.
This was the highest rate (32.6 per 1,000 girls) in nine of the larger towns which accounted for almost two-thirds of all pregnancies in this age group in Suffolk. The Clements ward was sited as having a significantly high rate of teenage pregnancies, with a rate of 47.2.
Susan Dey, local teenage pregnancy co-ordinator for Suffolk Health, said more recent figures for the county were showed rates were rising slightly overall.
She said: "I would agree with Brian Keeble, Director of Health, in that there is a direct correlation between high pregnancy rates and areas of social deprivation and poverty. These are increased risk factors.
"In Haverhill, for the last three years we have had a very successful outreach project, A detached youth worker and a health worker go out to take the message to young people where they are, rather than expect them to come to us.
"It is very difficult to find a direct correlation between that and a drop in the rates, which only come out every two years, but we believe it has been very successful. It has been mentioned in a national report on teenage pregnancy and people elsewhere are looking to do the same thing."
The success of the outreach project could now mean its expansion to other parts of the county.
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