Bayou Life Magazine | Hygiene is the practice of maintaining health and preventing disease through cleanliness. Healthy hygiene practices can be a touchy subject with your pre-teen and teen children. As they grow, their bodies are maturing faster than their grooming practices. As parents, we want to offer support, while making it clear that personal hygiene is their responsibility. As they begin to experience puberty or some of the changes that happen when their bodies change from a child to a young adult. These changes typically begin around the ages of 10 and 14, while some may start earlier and some begin later, everyone eventually will go through it! Forming these healthy habits are important for your teen’s physical, mental, and emotional health.

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Bayou Life Magazine | Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common but under-diagnosed mental health condition experienced across different age groups and cultures. Social anxiety disorder can have an effect on your ability to attend school and work at a job. Starting in a new place, making friends, giving presentations, eating with others—these and other aspects of school and work are all triggers for those with social anxiety. If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with SAD or you think you may be experiencing symptoms of the disorder, learning more about what to expect can help. 

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Bayou Life Magazine | Life is filled with uncertainty, especially at times like this. While many things remain outside your control, your mindset is key to coping with difficult circumstances and facing the unknown. Uncertainty is all around us, never more so than today. The current COVID-19 pandemic has heightened uncertainty over the economy, employment, finances, relationships, and of course, physical and mental health. Yet as human beings, we crave security. We want to feel safe and have a sense of control over our lives and well-being. Fear and uncertainty can leave you feeling stressed, anxious, and powerless over the direction of your life. It can drain you emotionally and trap you in a downward spiral of endless "what-ifs" and worst-case scenarios about what tomorrow may bring.

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Bayou Life Magazine | Today, a majority of high school graduates aspire to earn a college degree, and yet only 68% of them immediately enroll in a two- or four-year postsecondary institution after completing high school. Even among students who do enroll in college only about 60% of students at four-year institutions complete a bachelor's degree within six years of initially enrolling, and degree completion rates at two-year institutions are even lower. Results from standardized test scores that are aligned to college readiness standards assist in identifying the gaps that exist between the knowledge and skills students have acquired in high school and those that are needed to be successful in college. Students may lack the academic behaviors and goals that are needed to succeed in college. States, districts, and schools, are looking for solutions to help improve the college and career readiness requirements, as well as end-of-course exams to help ensure course quality.

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Bayou Life Magazine | Teen dating violence (TDV) is a type of intimate partner violence. It occurs between two people in a close relationship. Tenn dating violence, as referred to as "dating violence," can take place in person or electronically, such as repeated texting or posting sexual pictures of a partner online without consent. Unhealthy relationships can start early and last a lifetime. Teens often think some behaviors, like teasing and name-calling, are a "normal" part of a relationship - but these behaviors can become abusive and develop into serious forms of violence. However, many teens do not report unhealthy behaviors because they are afraid to tell family and friends. 

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Bayou Life Magazine | Suicide is a “Silent Epidemic” that claims the lives of more teenagers and young adults than cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia and influenza combined. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, in Louisiana, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for ages 10-14 and the third-leading cause of death for ages 15-34,. In total, suicide was responsible for 722 deaths in Louisiana in 2017. This figure puts the suicide rate in Louisiana at 15.26% per 100,000 people, which is above the national average of 13.26%
 
Jan Daniels is the Youth Development Coordinator at the Children’s Coalition. She received her Bachelor of Social Work from Northeast Louisiana. For the past sixteen years, Jan Daniels has been working with middle schools in northeast Louisiana to provide the suicide prevention program Signs of Suicide (SOS). She was trained through Columbia University in this program. Her passion is making sure children in our community are not only physically healthy, they are also mentally healthy. 

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Bayou Life Magazine​ | Diversity is the rule not the exception. Diversity is everywhere. People are different. Different is not better or worse, it’s just different. There is diversity in families. One person is the tallest. Another is the shortest. One has lighter colored eyes than all of the other family members, etc. Diversity is all around us, so it is impossible to ignore it. Parents address it every day. It is the type of diversity and how it is addressed that can be problematic. Parents teach children how to react to diversity based on how they react to it. All parents model and teach directly and indirectly the behaviors they children will emulate.
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Dr. Pamela Higgins Saulsberry received her BA in Social Work from Colorado State University; her MSW from the University of Denver, and her PhD. from Jackson State University in Jackson, MS. She is a License Clinical Social Worker-Board Approved Clinical Supervisor and a certified School Social Worker and Nurturing Parent and Black Effective Parent trainer and a member of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), and the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). Presently she is the Director of the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences at University of Louisiana at Monroe, serves as the Program Coordinator of and a full Professor in the Social Work Program, and serves as the Chairperson on the Diversity Committee. In addition to her professional endeavors, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Northeast Louisiana Sickle Cell Foundation; she serves as an appointed member on the State of Louisiana Sickle Cell Commission; Ouachita Jury Commission; Twin City’s Art Council; she served on the now defunct Child Death Review Panel for Region 8.

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Bayou Life Magazine​ | As a parent or caretaker you have to practice effective communication and prepare yourself for conflicts and disagreements. The key to building a positive relationship and sorting out any communication difficulties with your teenager is to keep the channels of communication open. We can get locked into unhelpul ways of communicating, that once we're in are hard to avoid. Your teenager still needs to know you are interested but watchful, that you care and are on their side, even if you don't always agree with them. You need to have the skill and the emotional resilience to go on offering help, even in the face of indifference and opposition. 

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Bayou Life Magazine​ | Managing stress is an important part of building resilience. Having a range of healthy coping skills to turn to allows young people to bounce back from challenges. We hope our children will come to us to talk about the stress in their lives. The reality is they often attempt to manage stress on their own. And in their attempts to reduce discomfort, teens often turn to things that make them feel better quickly. This may include taking part in risky behaviors like drinking or drug use. These short-term "fixes" are often misguided attempts to deal with stress. Equipping teens with a wide range of healthy coping skills reduces the need to turn to worrisome behaviors and supports emotional and physical health.

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