SMS Health Center

2009-10-09T05:30:00.000-07:00

H1N1 Vaccine: Top 5 reasons why people fear it. Read more at www.cdc.com

Parenting a Daughter Who is Away at School...

2009-02-18T11:31:00.000-08:00

This is a short article for parents of boarding students -- offering encouragement, reflections, and tips on long-distance parenting! We on the Health Team hope to make this the beginning of sharing information and ideas with our parents. Read on, and let us hear back from you!
From the Clinical Advisor, Mary Williams, LPC, LMFT:

We all know the importance of staying connected to, "in touch with", our adolescent children. The adolescent years are characterized developmentally by a kind of contradiction: the child both needs to work at moving towards independence and at the same time desperately still needs parental presence, love and guidance. Having a child "away", at boarding school, highlights the importance of that connection -- and adds to the challenge of maintaining it. In the boarding school calendar, one of the toughest times of year for students away from home are the winter months -- in other words, right now!
What can you, as a parent, do to reinforce your connection with your young lady, at St. Margaret's School? Here are some quick tips:
- establish and keep to regular, predictable contact, through e.mail and telephone. Notice that I don't stress "frequent" and much as"regular" and "predictable". We know that when young people who are away from parents know what to expect in the way of contact and when to expect it, they will do better in the "in between". You might want to have a talk with your daughter about how often you are in touch with each other. Is it enough? Is it too much? E.mail is a marvelous tool for spontaneous communiques and can be used as such; for telephone
calls, you may wish to establish a regular time, such as "the Sunday evening phone call".
- Be attuned. Your daughter is growing through many developmental stages during her months with us. We work hard, through our co-curriculum, to educate her about her psychosocial development. But you, as a parent, have a unique "ear" that we don't have. Practice careful listening; if you hear worries in your daughter's voice when you talk with her, for example, act on your concern: call the advisor, or the Health Office, or the Dean of Residential Life. This may be a time to increase the frequency of your contact, to practice "being
there" for your daughter, through the rough spots, even though you are not physically present.
- Stay flexible! Sometimes, our children need us at times we don't expect them to. You may find that your daughter goes through a period of time where she needs to be with you in person. Rather than try to postpone that need to a scheduled school break, you may wish to go to school to see her. Sometimes this can be over a weekend; at other times, during the week. You can take her to dinner, attend her sports practices, perhaps have her take a "respite" from dorm life and stay overnight in the hotel with you. These previously unscheduled visits can go a long ways towards promoting a closer bond between parent and adolescent daughter, and often are remembered by the young person as having been especially helpful.
- Be in touch with us! We in the Health Center are here to listen, support, and provide referrals to resources. Nurses Thrift and Marston and Clinical Advisor Mary Williams always welcome conversations with our parents.

Robitussin can't kill you ,can it??? It's just an over-the-counter drug....

2008-12-02T13:46:00.000-08:00

Taking large amounts of ANY over-the-counter drug can lead to serious damage to your vital organs, including the most vital of all your organs, YOUR BRAIN..... Please visit our Teen Health &Wellness site to get the real facts about abusing over-the-counter drugs .

Body Art / The good,the bad and the ugly

2008-10-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

Gauges, plugs, and tapers are all forms of body modification. This is a permanent change to your body. Think job interviews, your wedding, being a grandmother..... Stretchings can lead to serious viral or bacterial infections. Learn more in your Teen Health and Wellness database.

To Breathe or Not To Breathe

2008-10-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

Asthma seems to be a growing health issue in our country and especially in our own community. There is a nice resource in Teen Health and Wellness.

For lots of people—maybe even you—asthma is a fact of life. One in every fifteen Americans suffers from asthma. And nearly five million of those are under age eighteen.

Asthma doesn't affect all young people equally, reported the National Institutes of Health in 2008. Nine percent of teens and children have asthma in the general U.S. population. But among specific racial groups, the rate can be higher. Asthma affects 13 percent of black teens and children and 26 percent of Puerto Rican teens and children. Experts suspect that living conditions, such as urban living, may be responsible for part of the increase.

Please check out the site.

Welcome

2008-10-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the sms health center blog. Nurse Marston and Nurse Thrift look forward to offering students resources and topics dealing with their health needs and questions.