OAKLAND, Calif.--(BW Health Wire)--June 3, 1997--Kaiser Permanente has joined forces with the Teen Pregnancy Coalition of San Mateo County to offer Teen Talk to freshman science classes offered at Woodside High School.

Teen Talk was designed to educate and empower teenagers to make informed, responsible choices.

Kaiser Permanente provides health educators, class materials and administrative funding for Teen Talk. The program, offered in both English and Spanish, includes approximately seven hours of instruction for each of Woodside's 18 freshman classes. Topics include issues that affect today's teens, such as sexually transmitted diseases, abstinence, birth control, teen pregnancy, peer pressure, communication skills, suicide, gangs and date rape.

According to the U.S. News and World Report, times have changed for teens. In the 1940s, public school teachers rated talking out of turn, chewing gum and making noise as the top disciplinary problems. According to this article, teachers across the country list drug and alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery and assault among the top problems.

Planned Parenthood ( largest killer of unborn children) reports that each year more than one million U.S. teens become pregnant -- one in nine women ages 15 to 19 and one in five who are sexually active. Surveys indicate that at least 50 percent of unwed 15- to 19-year-old women and 60 percent of unwed 15- to 19-year-old men report having sex.

"Teen Talk is a great forum for the students to develop problem- solving skills and learn how to make safe decisions in this world," says Woodside High School freshman teacher Diane Mazzei. "The students talk and learn about things that pertain to their real lives."

Kaiser Permanente Health Educator Pam Schwartz says students in the Teen Talk program decide upon the program topics with an anonymous question box. The program is intentionally unstructured and "casual" to allow students to ask the questions they want to ask.

"We want teens to talk about the issues they want to talk about and teach them how to access community resources," Schwartz says. ""been Talk is a proactive program that helps teens make better choices."

For example, Schwartz says, students research prevention methods, including abstinence and participate in activities that help them make healthier choices.

"I learned a lot about safe sex," says one 15-year-old male student. "We also talked about drugs and stuff, and now I'm even less likely to do it 1/8drugs 3/8 than I was before the class."

Schwartz says the course features role-playing activities to teach students to assert themselves and say what they want -- leaving no room for ambiguity.

"We learned how to communicate with our parents and friends," explains a 15-year-old female student. "I learned that talking about things and saving what you really mean can help you. It's important to say 'yes' when you mean yes and 'no' when you mean no.

The California Division of Kaiser Permanente is a prepaid, health maintenance organization (HMO) serving almost 5 million members throughout the state. The Division has approximately 6,100 physicians and 55,000 employees. It is organized into 12 local market areas which are served by 26 major medical centers.