SOC Ambassadors' Suprise Awards - www.icareguam.org

Community must help stop truancy - www.icareguam.org

PDN Article: August 24, 2013

This is a good time, as school has just started, to pay attention to the issue of school truancy, which is a problem on our island. We all need to work on preventing it so that our young people can graduate from high school successfully.

We are not alone with this problem, as it seems to be worldwide, and each jurisdiction has it own laws about it and set of consequences. Each country also has its own slang expression such as "skulling," "ditching," "doggin'," "sluff," "bunking," "playing hookey," "cutting," etc. But it all comes down to mean not going to classes or to school.

It also means not making the grades to graduate, not being able to find a job and maybe even worst -- getting into juvenile delinquency and further into the legal system.

What we can do to prevent students from skipping school and being truant must be a concern for everyone. Truancy is a problem with many of our young people and, for some, it starts very early in elementary school.

Truancy is a red flag. It is a risk factor -- one of the early warning signs that a youth potentially is headed for delinquent activity, social isolation or educational failure.

These early patterns have long-term costs for both the individual and society. We all must work on preventing school truancy and increasing high-school graduation rates.

What parents can do

So what can be done? For starters, parents need to compel their children to attend school and not give in to excuses for not going. Explore the reasons why your children don't want to go to school and seek help if the reasons are serious, requiring school and other professional attention. If the reason isn't valid explain to your children the consequences, and enforce the penalty for not going to school.

Parents, guardians and caretakers must not allow a child who skips school to stay home and have access to social media technology and related activities that only reinforce the truancy behavior. Instead, make the child work, do school or house work, do something so they realize that going to school is better than staying home.

If a child doesn't want to go to school, don't allow him or her to go out and hang out with friends. This is just waiting for trouble.

According to Guam Public Law 21-11, a student is a habitual truant if the he or she has incurred 12 or more unexcused absences in a school year and is of compulsory attendance age. This could land the student in the court system.

The worst thing, however, is that the student isn't learning skills that will prepare him or her for the future, for a job and a decent livelihood as a productive member of the community.

If you know of a youth who is truant, talk to the parent and the child, and get him or her the needed help. If this means reporting it to the school truant officer and it becomes a court case because it is a violation of Guam's compulsory education/truancy law, then something is being done to get the help that the young person needs.

We all benefit from the success or our young people, ... and we also all pay for whatever they become.

Annie F.B. Unpingco, LCSW, is administrator of I Famagu'on-ta at the Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center.

Parents: Be involved in child's education - www.icareguam.org

PDN Article: August 17, 2013

Parents are a child's first teachers and their continued involvement throughout the child's educational life is key to the child's academic success. Parents need to remain not only involved, but also engaged in every level of their child's education and academic process.

There are ways for parents to become involved and engaged in monitoring their student's academic process in school and ensure that the student is learning at an effective pace.

Early in the school year, parents need to know who the child's teachers are and establish a good relationship so that they'll feel more comfortable approaching them, should the child have a problem, and teachers feel more comfortable contacting the parents. Parents and teachers must become partners in students' education.

Parents need to feel welcomed and valued as part of the overall learning community, because they have a lot to offer about their children that would be helpful in students' academic achievement. Parent orientations, parent-teacher conferences and other school events are opportunities to learn about the students and their parents, skills and backgrounds.

Teachers and school administrators can offer programs to assist parents in creating better home environments for their children and establish homework policies and provide positive reinforcement to students who complete their homework on a regular basis.

School administrators can provide resources to connect parents to educational training, such as family literacy programs and information about family support programs that are culturally relevant, as well as health and nutrition programs.

How to get involved

Parental involvement and engagement can take many forms from helping your child learn at home, reading a book, assisting with homework to helping in the classroom by volunteering during lunch breaks, at the office or on the playground. Volunteering can help bring parents and school personnel together, enhancing student learning. Parents' presence on the school campus can be a great strategy to keeping children on their best behaviors as well.

Parents can monitor their child's academic progress by requesting progress reports or simply paying an occasional visit to the school and staying informed with happenings at their child's school through newsletters or bulletins.

What happens at home is just as important as what happens in the classroom.

Parents need to establish structure and routine, like doing homework before or immediately after dinner and getting organized for the next day. The child knows that's the time to get his or her work done and prepare for the next day. These are skills the child will carry through high school, college and throughout life. Having a routine helps motivate students to do the work.

This also means limiting time in front of a television, with video games or on the Internet or social media as well. Children do very well with routine and structure.

Keep an open line of communication with your student and have an open conversation each day about his or her school experience. Maintain a positive and supportive home environment that would help increase his or her self-esteem and confidence and improve school behavior and grades.

When parents show a lack of enthusiasm for their child's academic experience, it teaches children to have low expectations about learning. This can have a negative outcome, leading to low grades, school behavioral problems, suspensions and even increased school drop-out rates.

Parents should be encouraged and supported to provide ongoing support for their children's academic success and reinforce positive behaviors at home. Let's all work together as a community and help our children excel and succeed.

Annie F.B. Unpingco, LCSW, is administrator of I Famagu'on-ta at the Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center.

I Famaguon-ta Open House 2013, Guitar Playing - www.icareguam.org

Make sure children ready for school - www.icareguam.org

PDN Article: August 10, 2013

Back-to-school for some private school students started last week, and for others in public school it is just around the corner -- Aug. 19. For many children and youths, school is still not in their minds, even as the summer draws to an end. It's not easy to end something when you are having fun.

It's important for parents to start preparing their children to returning to school by talking about it. Attending a new school or even starting a new grade can be stressful for a child. Talking about it and addressing their concerns and curiosity can ease their minds and set them on a positive path.

Here are some basic steps to help prepare a child for school after a summer vacation.

• Establish a regular bedtime schedule and set routines before school starts. Children need to go to bed earlier each night until the child reaches the required regular bed time.

Each child's sleep requirements are different. On average, children between 5 and 10 years old need between 10 and 11 hours of sleep per night, whereas preteens and teens, ages 10 to 17, require 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep a night.

A restful night's sleep is very important. A lack of sleep can adversely affect your child's performance, their attention span and physical health.

The link between sleep deprivation and learning is showcased in research by the National Commission on Sleep Disorder Research. Sixty percent of grade school and high school students report being tired at school and 15 percent of those actually fell asleep in class. Sleep deprivation also can contribute to absenteeism and truancy over time.

Set a pattern of going to bed and getting up the same time every morning. Keep your child's bedtime schedule and routine consistent and stress-free as possible. Develop a plan to wind down the day -- such as powering off all electronic devices, computers and phones at least an hour before bedtime.

Lay out clothes, shoes and everything needed for the next day. Make sure school materials -- homework, books and necessary materials -- are packed for school and ready to go in the morning.

Have your child take a bath or shower before bed to ease the morning rush. For some children, a morning bath or shower would work best, as it wakes them up. Make hygiene care, washing up and brushing teeth a routine before bedtime.

A nice book for bedtime reading, a relaxing meditation, prayer and soothing music would nicely end the evening.

• Another important preparation to returning to school is developing a conducive environment at home to study and establishing a routine for homework, and a plan to review and discuss with your child school assignments, requirements and concerns.

Teach your child time-management skills by creating a system to handle the growing work load as their school assignments increase.

• It is important to make sure your child is fed in the morning with a simple but nourishing breakfast so that they are not hungry before lunch time and they can focus and function better at school.

Lastly, remember to send them off to school with a hug or a kiss, and always with a reassurance that they are valued and loved and to treat others with respect and care.

Annie F.B. Unpingco, LCSW, is administrator of the Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center.

CMHA Wave 2013 - www.icareguam.com

Grant will boost systems of care - www.icareguam.com

PDN Article: August 3, 2013

It is heartwarming to know that despite the sequestration we are experiencing, nationally and locally, the federal government was able to award Guam the amount of $1 million a year for four years to implement the system of care expansion plan that was developed for our island children from birth to young adulthood.

This grant is known as "Para Todu I Famagu'on-ta,"or For All Our Children.

This award speaks to the importance of children's mental health and our responsibility as a community to ensure all our children get the best care possible, and a chance to grow up healthy, to experience positive opportunities and become productive members of a community.

The implementation grant award will focus on developing a unified system of care which provides a broadly supported, sustainable array of home- and community-based services that enables children and youths to achieve their maximum potential and builds on the strengths of our diverse families.

5 primary goals

There are five primary goals and objectives of Para Todu I Famagu'on-ta:

• Adopt care standards and protocols based on systems of care values, principles and best practices across all child-serving agencies through policy changes, contracts and memorandum of agreements;

• Enhance and sustain a family-driven, youth-guided array of home- and community-based services by expanding parent and youth peer support services, retooling existing services and filling in services gaps by enhancing respite care, therapeutic foster care and transitional services;

• Attain diverse funding sources which will adequately sustain Guam's systems of care by accessing Medicaid funding for children's mental health services, pooling and braiding child-serving agency funds, and redirecting funds from higher-cost to lower-cost services;

• Establish a systems of care training program to build workforce capacity across child-serving agencies and providers, including family and youth peer specialists; and

• Gain broad community acceptance and support through the implementation of a youth-guided, culturally relevant anti-stigma campaign, called "icareguam," that targets parents, students and educators.

There are several personnel positions in this grant that are available for recruitments, these are: administrative data clerk, social marketing/public relations officer, youth peer specialists and family peer specialists.

If interested, please submit a government of Guam job application form.

Upcoming workshop

An upcoming event for Aug. 12-14 is a workshop: "Game Change! System of Care and Young Adults of Transition Age." It's a gathering of all public child-serving agencies to work on a strategic plan focused on supporting successful transition of this vulnerable population of youth and young adults with serious mental-health conditions.

Annie F.B. Unpingco, LCSW, is an administrator at the Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center.

I Famaguon-ta Open House 2013 - www.icareguam.com