The youths are the lifeblood of any community since they make highly impactful contributions to the social, economic and political development in the community and are the future of society. The current American youth population is in dire need of mentorship due to the rampant high-risk behaviors among them. The Center for disease and control statistics show that the youth aged between thirteen and twenty-four account for over 20% of new HIV infections with 81% of the population comprising of homosexuals due to risky sex behavior. The population also accounts for over half of the sexually transmitted diseases infections while the same population accounts for over 200,000 births with most of them being teen pregnancies. Another CDC report shows that the use of e-cigarettes in youths between the ages of 10 and 24 is also on the rise and 17% of youths in the same population take opioids and are involved in drug and alcohol abuse. The report further shows that the number of sexually active teens using condoms has decreased from 63% in 1991 to 55% presently. A State of Obesity research shows one in every four young adults is obese and the CDC reports that suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people. These statistics show an apparent need for guidance and mentorship programs to save the young population from self-destructive behaviors. The action plan is dedicated to formulating an empowerment and mentorship based approach to solve the problems and reduce the teenage deaths and the effects of the destructive tendencies.
Symptoms
The transition from childhood to adulthood is a tough one since it comes with physical, emotional and psychological changes which if not handled carefully lead to frustration resulting in destructive behavior (Ciocanel, Power, Eriksen & Gillings, 2016). The symptoms of destructive behavior among young adults are many with most of them manifesting themselves in the form of lower achievement levels, poor health, and impaired advancement in life.One symptom of destructive behavior is depression and lack of enthusiasm for anything the teens previously enjoyed doing. Depression is occasioned by feelings of helplessness, sadness, desperation, and loneliness whereby the youths feel pessimistic and that there is nothing worth living for. Depression is usually the genesis of the main self-destructive behaviors in the youths (Lansford, Dodge, Fontaine, Bates & Pettit, 2014). Depression compels the young people to engage in activities like drug and alcohol abuse and as statistics show more and more teenagers are partaking opioids. They take the drugs in an attempt to escape their sad reality and feel better about themselves. Most depressed youths hide their pain by trying to act normal or being told to snap out of it which leads to further mental and emotional anguish. It stems from bullying, low self-esteem, lack of a support system, problems at home or even at school and leads to insomnia and lack of the will to live (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). There is a dire need for a program in the community that provides counseling services and an ear to listen to these depressed young people before the depression graduates to fatal actions like suicide, crime or drug addiction.
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Isolation from the world is also a symptom of risk behavior among the young population (Lansford et.al., 2014). In a world where the internet creates a haven for people who wish to escape reality and shut people out, isolation is more easily disguised as introversion. The young person may dissociate themselves from socializing with family, friends and their peers and prefer to be alone and spend too much time on the internet and other technological devices. Once a teenager shows signs of isolation, it is a tell tale sign of something being wrong with them since today's teenagers are ever screaming for attention and to be noticed. When the world is too busy swiping on their devices this symptom is easy to miss which calls for an interactive program for the young people where they will spend most of their time away from their technical devices doing constructive and interactive things (Lansford et.al., 2014). If the isolation in the young people in the community is reduced by introducing alternative programs to occupy their time the level of risk behavior will decrease in the community. Delinquency is also a symptom of destructive behavior in young people. The desire to fit in compels them to join criminal gangs and engage in criminal activities like drug dealing and drug abuse and hanging out with bad company (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). A mentorship program will go a long way in setting the young people on the right pass away from these negative life choices. Change in sleep patterns is also a symptom which can be occasioned by either too much sleep or too little sleep and mood swings and outbursts when they are awake (Lansford et.al., 2014). These symptoms if nipped in the bud through community outreach programs and a combined effort of all stakeholders will help avoid destruction of bright futures of the youth and reduce suicide rates.
High-risk teens also exhibit cognitive symptoms which culminate into destructive behaviors (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). They have difficulty concentrating on anything and are easily distracted in and out of school. This can be reflected on their performance in school, and their performance may decrease since they can hardly concentrate on their studies and they may find it difficult to complete simple activities like washing dishes, leaving the table set halfway and show concentration deficit in all areas of their lives. They also suffer from memory impairment where they have difficulty remembering things even the simplest things like where they placed their phone or the remote (Lansford et.al., 2014). They also encounter difficulty in problem-solving and decision making and act impulsively without thinking about the consequences of their actions and their words. Additionally, the young people may exhibit psychosocial symptoms including the absence of empathy and remorse in their actions, low self-esteem and being overly sensitive and overreacting to issues with mood swings (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). These symptoms are responsible for the negative behaviors being seen in the young people in the community which affects their productivity levels at personal and societal levels which call for programs to rectify the situation.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis encompasses an identification of the nature of the underlying issues that lead to the mentioned symptoms in order to formulate a cure and preventive measures (Lansford et.al., 2014). Statistics from the US Department of health and human services show that the young population makes up 13.2% of the present American population and the population is projected to grow up to fifty million in the year 2050. Young people in their late teens and early twenties are more likely to engage in destructive behaviors like sexual irresponsible behaviors, criminal behaviors and drug and alcohol abuse compared to their younger counterparts (Lansford et.al., 2014). The most prevalent destructive behaviors include unhealthy eating behaviors leading to obesity and eating disorders, use of tobacco, alcohol, and opioids, gang affiliations and having unprotected sex (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). The result has been an increase in truancy, delinquency, teenage pregnancies, suicide rates, incarcerations among the youth, aggression, and bullying in and outside schools and school dropouts and poverty.
Studies show that one in four young Americans engage in risky behaviors with young men engaging more than their female counterparts (Lansford et.al., 2014). The development of the behaviors is attributed to various factors including environmental factors, genetic factors, and physical factors. The environmental factors include the social and home environment that the young people grow up in and who they associate with. The divorce rate has been on the rise since the 1970s leading to an increase in single parent families (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). The trend has led to more responsibilities on the single parents requiring them to put in more work to provide for their families. This leaves young people with many unstructured and unsupervised hours and in the absence of parental supervision prone to negative influence from peers and other people. They then get lost in the internet world during these unsupervised hours, and according to the CDC statistics, the result is a youth population which is 18% obese and at risk of obesity related diseases (Lansford et.al., 2014). The change in the family structure is, therefore, calls for an alternative way of mentoring the youths and engaging them in constructive activities during their unstructured free time.
A Harvard School of Public Health research reports that over 100,000 youths ran away from their homes with no designated places to live and that most of them feel ignored by the community they live in (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). A program that engages them and makes them feel like they are important and have a part to play in the development of the community is, therefore, a necessity. The increase in gang and criminal activity puts the youths at risk in a bid to seek for a sense of belonging and as a means of alleviating poverty (Lansford et.al., 2014). U.S. Department of Health & Human Services statistics indicates that 18% of young people live in poverty with their household living below the $24,250 household income poverty line. The tough economic conditions push the youth into the risky behaviors and make them soft targets for drug traffickers and criminal gangs (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). There is, therefore, need for poverty alleviation and a mentorship program to instill the values of hard work and perseverance in the youths so that they can stay in school to increase their employability potential and escape poverty.
Cure
The action plan is centered on eradicating and preventing the recurrence of the factors that contribute to the high-risk behavior and endanger the youths (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). It is aimed at facilitating positive youth development, providing mentorship services, encouraging healthy lifestyles and making the youth feel included in the community development. It is built on suggestions from community members collected through community forums and will act as the blueprint on which the programs are built on (Lansford et.al., 2014). To support the first objective of promoting teen development the program team will take an inventory of all available community recreation facilities and assess how they fit into the current needs of the youth population. Then youth friendly venues will be selected and facilities designed and constructed to fit the chosen youth engagement activities. Programs will then be designed and staff to oversee them trained on the best way to build self-esteem in the youth and instill resilient and positive traits in them (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). A youth hub will be created where they can engage in recreational activities like art, music, sports to keep them away from the negative activities they may engage in during their unsupervised free time.
The program will also facilitate the participation of the community in the youth development process (Lansford et.al., 2014). A task force will be created to include community representatives, youth representatives, and workers in the identified recreation facilities as well as all the other stakeholders. That will be followed by the creation of a youth leadership committee which will be tasked with formulating youth oriented programs and advise the task force on what interests the target population. Young people from the target population will also be recruited as ambassadors particularly those who influence their peers to draw participation from the young people (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). The volunteers working in the mentorship programs preferably older locals who grew up in the same neighborhood and emerged successfully will be trained, and a database created so that they may be called upon during youth events and programs.
To promote a healthy lifestyle among young people, the program will work for hand in hand with schools, faith based organizations and other youth empowerment stakeholders to implement a developed curriculum (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). Activities like camping for several weeks during holidays where youths are educated on life skills and healthy eating habits will be implemented. A training and fitness center will also be established in the long term where the community can engage in the gym and other training exercises to reduce obesity and other lifestyle diseases. An annual marathon will be planned to raise funds for the youth programs and raise awareness on the importance of adopting healthy eating habits for youth development (Lansford et.al., 2014). To reduce the suicide rates, a counseling center where qualified professionals can volunteer and offer their services will be set up. The center will contribute to reducing the self-harming behavior in teenagers and remind them that the community cares (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). For the program to succeed, it will require partnership with different entities including government organizations, private business proprietors, the community, non-governmental organizations and faith-based organizations.
Prevention
To prevent further widespread of the destructive behavior among the youth parents, the community and other stakeholders need to work together to realize the change (Lansford et.al., 2014). The prevention is important for social and economic transformation since it will mean a more responsible youth population and reduced crime rates. Every citizen, therefore, has a benefit to reap from the combined prevention effort. Economically it will save funds that go to the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, incarceration and imprisonment expenses and the funds will be diverted to social development projects. To curb the risk behaviors associated with eating the fitness and wellness facility will be constructed and activities to promote healthy dieting and nutrition choices established (Ciocanel et.al., 2016). To prevent the relapse of reformed delinquent youths the program will work together with the government, NGOs and other potential employers to offer part time jobs for them when they are not in school. That way they will stay away from negative peer influence and stay engaged to keep off isolation and depression. To prevent the sexually risky behaviors the program will work with schools to educate the young people on contraception, abstinence and safe sex practices (Lansford et.al., 2014). That will reduce the teenage pregnancies and the prevalence of HIV and sexually transmitted infections among the youth.
In sum, an action plan spells out the steps that will be taken to curb a certain problem, and in this case, it will be to curb the prevalence of risky behaviors among the young people. The problems affecting the youths include high-risk sexual behaviors, increasing suicide rates, criminal and gang related activities, school drop outs and unhealthy lifestyles leading to obesity and eating disorders. These problems are manifested by symptoms like depression, isolation, truancy, delinquency, and rebellion towards authority. They are caused by parenting trends, environmental factors, and genetic factors. To prevent them a formulation of some programs in the action plan will go a long way in curbing them and preventing their future recurrence. The activities in the programs include mentorship programs, recreation facilities, youth friendly events like marathons and camping and collaboration with various stakeholders including government and non-government organizations, schools and the general community.
References
Ciocanel, O., Power, K., Eriksen, A., & Gillings, K. (2016). Effectiveness of Positive Youth Development Interventions: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46 (3), 483-504. Doi: 10.1007/s10964-016-0555-6
Lansford, J. E., Dodge, K. A., Fontaine, R. G., Bates, J. E., & Pettit, G. S. (2014). Peer Rejection, Affiliation with Deviant Peers, Delinquency, and Risky Sexual Behavior. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43 (10), 1742-1751. Doi: 10.1007/s10964-014-0175-y
