Adolescent Champion - Staff Spark I: Adolescent Friendly Environments
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Supplies: Projector, audio/speakers, laptop with PowerPoint presentation, focus area/adolescent friendliness surveys, poster of focus areas, star
stickers, Sparklers for subsequent weeks, pens to complete survey, Human Bingo half sheets.
Prep: Load PowerPoint on laptop with speakers; test video in PPT for volume level (and to make sure it plays); supplies.
Time
5 min.
Content
Intro/Hook
Intro slide: title page
Over the coming months, we’ll do 15-minute mini-trainings called Staff Sparks during our meetings, to look at
key areas we can better meet the needs of our teen patients, also known as adolescents. For the purpose of
this project, adolescents are young people age 12-24.
 Slide change: Who Are Adolescent Champions?
At our site, I’m one of the Adolescent Champions, along with ________. [State names of the Adolescent
Champions at your site.] The Champions will be facilitating five Staff Sparks at meetings, doing the ACE
assessment and improvement process, and increasing risk screening with our teen patients.
Slide change: Introduce video.
We’re starting the first of our five Staff Sparks by thinking a little bit more about what adolescents need from
their experience at a health center, and what it means to be patient-centered for them in particular. Let’s hear
from teens directly in this 1 minute video about how they want to be involved in their healthcare. The teens in
the video are from our project’s youth advisory council.
As you watch, keep the question in mind: What can the consequences be when teens don’t feel comfortable
with their health care experience?
Slide change: Play video. (If you can’t open the file, you may choose to show the longer TAC TAC video,
“Health Experts, Meet Teen Experts,” on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjpO06F6mug).
Slide change: Brief discussion. What thoughts did you have about the question from the beginning: What
can the consequences be when teens don’t feel comfortable with their health care experience? [Consider
sharing a brief story from your own experience working with teens – e.g., RAAPS. Ask for responses.]
 Slide change: Human Bingo Teen Years*
To help us think back a little to our own experiences as teens, we’re going to start out by doing a brief activity
called Human Bingo. Working in groups of 3 or 4, have the people in your group fill in your squares by initialing
or completing the sentences. Instead of trying to complete a line (like with Bingo), try to have as many of the
nine squares filled in as you can. The first row asks for initials of someone in the group, so you’ll ask someone in
your group to initial a square that is true for them, and they put their initials in that square. To complete the
last two rows, find someone to write down a couple of words, like “If I could relive my teen years again, I
would… study more”. If someone completes all of the boxes, raise your hand and shout out “Bingo”!
[Take no more than a couple of minutes for people to fill out their sheets. As soon as one person yells Bingo,
ask everyone to return to their seats – or cut it short if you choose. Ask the following questions.]
1. What did people answer for the one about what’s important to teens?
2. What makes working with teens challenging?
3. What did someone put for “the best thing about working with teens”?
The purpose of this activity was to help us think back a little to our own experiences, and to remind ourselves
that it might take special effort for us to meet their needs as we provide patient-centered care, from the front
desk to exam room to check out.
Adolescent Champion - Staff Spark I: Adolescent Friendly Environments
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3 min.
Key Concepts
 Slide change: Teen Brain Under Construction
While teens are at this transitional time of their lives, we know from research -- and the points we listed in this
activity -- that teen brains are still under construction. The part of the brain that controls executive functioning
– which includes judgment and cause and effect – is not fully developed until age 25. When teens make
decisions that seem foolish, it’s helpful to remember that this can be developmentally appropriate (even if it’s
frustrating for us to see).
 Slide change: Three out of four deaths among teens are caused by risk behaviors.
And many other illnesses or negative consequences can come from risk behaviors – like teen pregnancy or STIs
due to unprotected sex.
 Slide change: Adolescent Champion Project
This is why we’re participating in the Adolescent Champion project. Using the ACE assessment tool, which is a
comprehensive checklist our site’s champions do each quarter, we’re trying to make our health center more
adolescent friendly. If teens feel like they have a medical home, they’re more likely to come to appointments,
keep those appointments, and consider the health messages they get from their providers. The main way we’ll
do this all together is through these Staff Sparks.
 Slide change: Adolescent Friendliness Survey – Focus Areas.

1 min.
1 min.
Since we’re just beginning the project, we have one last survey to do to assess how we’re doing when it
comes to Adolescent Centered Environments.
[Hand out survey.]
 This survey tries to address what it means by behaving in an adolescent friendly way. While there are
a lot of ways that health centers can be teen-friendly, this is the core of the interaction/behavior part.
 Please mark where you think we are as a clinic overall, not yourself individually. We know that we are
already doing some good work to help teen patients feel like this health center is their medical home.
However, we want to be the gold standard, so it’s best if we can be objective when we look at where
our overall climate is right now.
[Give them a moment to complete. As soon as they’ve completed the survey, give next instructions.]
 Okay, now that you’ve taken a moment to think about what we do best and what we can work on as a
whole, take a moment and pick two of these focus areas that you personally feel like you could improve
upon. Put a star on the left side, next to the two you select. Remember these.
[Collect surveys.] 
Application
 Slide change: Adolescent Friendliness Survey – Focus Areas with Star Stickers
When we pass this poster around, put stars by the two focus areas that you identified that you will pay close
attention to in the coming month or two.
Theme/Sparkler
During the month or two after our Sparks, we’ll do a Sparkler activity which will keep these ideas in mind
throughout the month. This month, we’ll put this poster up, and post a situation that ties in to our focus areas.
Pay special attention to the focus areas you’ve chosen. The point is to keep what you’re working on in the front
of your mind, noticing times you are being adolescent friendly – and it’s fine if you notice times that you could
be a little more adolescent friendly, too. The point is to bring our awareness to the issue.