PRESS RELEASE

 From the Office of the Commissioner of Health, Dr. Gale R. Burstein

 Date August 1, 2017

CONTACT: Mary C. St. Mary/Mary.StMary@Erie.Gov

Phone: 716.858.4941/ Mobile: 716.253.3925

HOPE Buffalo Introduces PATCH to Buffalo

Helping Providers & Teens Clearly Communicate about Health Issues

 ERIE COUNTY, NY—The Erie County Department of Health (“ECDOH”) and HOPE Buffalo, a collaborative, community project that aims to reduce teen pregnancy in selected Erie County zip codes by 30% by the year 2020, announce the arrival of the “PATCH” program to Buffalo.

PATCH (Providers and Teens Communicating for Health) recently completed training a team of Teen Educators to deliver no-charge workshops for both health care providers and teens in Buffalo.

• PATCH for Providers is an exclusive education opportunity where providers spend 90 minutes with trained Teen Educators acting as facilitators, learning best practices for engaging, educating, and empowering teen patients. It is designed for a wide range of health care professionals, offering insight on better ways to connect with and serve teen patients.

• PATCH for Teens is an opportunity for teens to learn from their peers about feeling more comfortable talking to their doctors about sensitive health topics. These Peer-to-Peer workshops allow Teen Educators the opportunity to teach other youth about the importance of learning how to manage their own health care.

For more information or to schedule training, contact Elizabeth Terranova, Project Coordinator, Teen Wellness, (716) 858-4977 or Elizabeth.Terranova@erie.gov.

This innovative training was sponsored by

The HOPE Buffalo project is supported through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health to the Erie County Department of Health and CAI (Cicatelli Associates Inc.).

For More Information:

Erie County Department of Health: Teen Wellness

HOPEBuffalo

PATCH Program

OAH Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program

National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy

This publication was made possible by Grant number 5 TP1AH000106-02-00 from the HHS Office of Adolescent Health. Contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Health and Human Services or the Office of Adolescent Health.