Spectrum Health Event Discourages Teen Tobacco Use

Hundreds of young people from the greater Grand Rapids area will have the chance to hear from their peers on why using tobacco is a bad idea.

Teens Against Tobacco Use or TATU has invited students from the Grand Rapids Public Schools and the Northview Public Schools to watch special anti-tobacco skits on Wednesday, March 18 at the Wealthy Theater in Grand Rapids.

The event was coordinated by the Spectrum Health Healthier Communities HeartReach® program, which received a $96,000 grant from the Grand Rapids Community Foundation in August 2008 to help in the effort to discourage young people from smoking.

TATU is a component of NicoTEAM, a Tobacco Free Partners coalition of organizations that provide tobacco prevention education to children. NicoTEAM was founded in 1995 by Thomas H. Peterson, MD, medical director, Spectrum Health Healthier Communities and medical director, quality, Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.

Peterson, who will make opening remarks at the TATU event, says that the expansion of student education efforts is important.

“Teenagers are still the primary focus of the tobacco companies and represent 90 percent of where tobacco addiction begins,” said Peterson. “Youth are a powerful component of controlling the tobacco epidemic so we need to keep them from starting smoking and perhaps positively influence other family members.”

The Youth Tobacco Prevention grant is being used to fund TATU as well as an elementary through middle school smoking prevention curriculum for high risk students in the Kent Intermediate School District, focusing on the Grand Rapids Public Schools. The prevention curriculum focuses on kindergarten through eighth grade, with an emphasis on the integrated middle school curriculum.

Through the TATU program, high school students at Ottawa Hills High School, Northview High School, and three other area high schools have been trained to teach younger children about the dangers of tobacco use and how to become advocates for a tobacco free community. The students worked with Elizabeth Stern, program coordinator, Spectrum Health Healthier Communities, and the TATU curriculum from the American Lung Association to create their own anti-tobacco presentations or skits.

Northview High School students will present their skit to fifth grade students from Northview Highland Middle School at 9:15 a.m. on March 18. Ottawa Hills High School students will present to fourth through sixth grade students from Martin Luther King Academy at 1 p.m. that same day. The skits will be videotaped for possible broadcast on community cable television.

Spectrum Health is a not-for-profit health system in West Michigan that offers a full continuum of care through the Spectrum Health Hospital Group, a collection of seven hospitals and more than 140 service sites; the Spectrum Health Medical Group, a multispecialty team of nearly 100 providers; and Priority Health, a health plan with nearly 500,000 members. Spectrum Health’s 14,000 employees, 1,500 medical staff members and 2,000 volunteers are committed to delivering the highest quality care to those in medical need. The organization provided $111.1 million in community benefit during its 2008 fiscal year. As a system, Spectrum Health has earned more than 100 awards during the past 10 years.