Kalkaska and Fife Lake area students benefit from focused health care programs
Teenagers typically know how to deal with the three ‘Rs’ in their school lives – reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Teen Health Corners in Kalkaska and Fife Lake also help them cope with another “R” – relationships.
The evidenced-based curriculum for all high school health students focuses on encouraging teens to build healthy relationships as well as violence and injury prevention, substance abuse prevention, healthy growth and development.
“This is really an interactive program that focuses on letting students share their thoughts and opinions while providing a real ‘hands-on’ application to the knowledge they learn along the way,” said Sara Smith, PA-C, a physician assistant at the Teen Health Corner in Kalkaska. “Students are taught coping skills, how to deal with peer pressure, bullying prevention, as well as refusal skills.”
Nutrition is taught in addition to the curriculum, with classroom discussion and the HBO series “Weight of the Nation.”
“We then collaborate with MSU Extension who facilitate a ‘Cooking Matters’ series where students learn about food safety and handling by preparing and cooking various meals,” Smith said. The classes reach about 25 students at Forest Area and 55 students in Kalkaska each semester.
In- and after-school programming for younger students also gives them information in the areas of nutrition, fitness education, cooking, tobacco prevention, stress reduction and much more.
The Kalkaska Teen Health Corner is staffed five days a week. In addition to Smith, Christina Brege, PA-C, also provides care and there are two licensed counselors from Pine Rest who are available three days a week. The Forest Area Schools Teen Health Corner is open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and is staffed by Smith and Family Nurse Practitioner Rachel Soles, FNP. Counselors are available two days a week.
Smith encourages area residents to pay attention to any fifth-grade students they know who are wearing a “5210” shirt and ask them what they learned about the Jump Into Foods and Fitness curriculum. Families of sixth graders also could talk about any TNT Tobacco Prevention materials they may have brought home.
“We are thankful for the opportunities to share important and practical information with these young people,” Smith said. “We offer comprehensive quality health care services in our clinic setting and educational programming in the classroom, providing an important contribution toward their healthy futures.”
For more information about the Teen Health Corner, or to make an appointment, call 231-258-7791 (Kalkaska) or 231-369-2000 (Forest Area), or visit online at munsonhealthcare.org/teenhealthcorner.