Addressing The Health Needs Of Young People Is A Moral Obligation

By Rev. Michael Schuenemeyer, Executive Director, UCAN, Inc.

As the national debate over funding the federal government rages, the impact of funding cuts falls directly on those whom society has a moral duty to serve.  Young people in America are one such group who are directly impacted by the current austerity measures and the consequences over time—not to mention the associated costs—are significant.

Although young people (ages 12-24) generally experience healthy times of life, we know that there are a number of health concerns facing a significant number of young people in America, such as obesity, sexually transmitted infections (including HIV), substance abuse, suicide and violence.  There are also significant racial and ethnic health disparities among young people, especially those who are living in poverty, compared to young people who are white.

The leading causes of illness and death among young people are largely preventable and the costs of preventable health problems among young people are burdensome for everyone. These can include the long-term costs of chronic diseases that are a result of behaviors begun during adolescence. For example, Healthy People 2020 (healthypeople.gov) reports, ”the annual adult health-related financial burden of cigarette smoking, which usually starts by age 18, is $193 billion.”

Understanding adolescent health and effectively addressing the health needs of our young people is a critical task not only in terms of public health, but also as a moral duty to our children and their future.   The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) is an agency of our government that provides vital services for addressing the health needs of young people. 

One of the significant services DASH helps to administer is the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) which monitors priority health-risk behaviors and the prevalence of obesity and asthma among youth and young adults. The YRBSS includes a national school-based survey conducted by the CDC as well as a state, territorial, tribal, and district surveys conducted by local education and health agencies and tribal governments to monitor:

• behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence  tobacco use
• alcohol and other drug use
• sexual risk behaviors
• unhealthy dietary behaviors
• physical inactivity
• obesity
• asthma

YRBSS is the only instrument used at the federal level to assess the health and education needs of middle and secondary school students in the U.S.  The advocacy of many organizations and individuals has led to the growing numbers of states and large cities that are using the YRBSS to assess sexual orientation, gender expression and transgender identity.  The data they collect is vital and is more often than not the sole source of information on the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) students.

This fiscal year (2012) funding to DASH was cut by 25% – a loss of 10 million dollars.  It makes absolutely no sense to underfund an agency so critical to understanding and effectively addressing the health issues of young people.  And it comes at a time when so many community-based and other non-governmental organizations have also been defunded, leaving too few agencies with too little capacity to fill the gap.

The New Beginning Initiative, a collaboration of expert organizations coordinated by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, recently sent a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health & Human Services calling on her to advocate with Congress to fully restore funding to DASH for 2013.  And Congress must hear from more of us who believe what so many have said through the ages, that the moral test of society is how it treats its most vulnerable.

The financial situation of our government is a burden we must all share, but it is a burden that cannot fall on those who are most vulnerable.  As a society we have a moral obligation to care for our young people but to provide for their needs effectively, Congress needs to fully restore DASH’s funding for fiscal year 2013 and provide additional funding to fill the gaps cuts created in 2012.

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