Category: Bullying Prevention

When the media does get involved in an informed manner they are able to successfully make that statement to inform the public of where we are and where we should be regarding that “social issue.” Thomas Sowell, from the Hoover Institute based in Stamford, California and a frequent contributor to the Tribune Democrat national newspaper system did that for us in his April 25^th piece on bullying, “A lot of talk about bullying, but little action.” In many ways he is correct. Politicians, alone or educators, alone, often have less then adequate results in any singular attempt to reduce bullying in our schools. What will work and what has been demonstrated to work is a public health approach to the issue. Bullying is a complex social epidemic. First, there should be no question that it is at epidemic proportions when upwards of 30% of our children are involved in bullying on any given school day. Also, the health and legal issues related to bullying adds another layer of activity to that epidemic. It costs all of us when that child is seen in the physician’s office or emergency room with a health issue, small or significant, related to bullying or when we can now document increased criminal activity in adulthood when a child becomes a bully in his youth.

It is not only the politicians, media or educators that need to step up to the plate and act. Our managed care organizations and health care providers must appreciate the health consequences of bullying beyond that of the school based bullying event. Health care reform needs to involve all the players at many levels. The Academy of Pediatrics and similar national organizations must appreciate the “evidence” of evidence based programs. Though not having their origins in the United States these internationally recognized initiatives have been evaluated over the decades and to now hold these programs to another level of ill defined evaluation allows us never to get out of the gate to do something about the issue. Judges and lawyers need to imbed a “public health” foundation into their unfunded policy mandates and not just require, reprimand or punish the student or school. Monitored, evidence based programs need to be part of the equation.

It is a complex issue requiring the theories and practices of public health science to implement that evidence based program with the highest of fidelity, monitor and evaluate the effort and, lastly, but most importantly, enable and empower those educators, politicians, health care providers, etc to sustain the initiative beyond the initial funding or programmatic activity.

An example of this public health approach and the only such example in the United States is what has occurred in Pennsylvania. The Highmark Foundation, in partnership with their health care organization, Highmark, Inc, and in realizing the health and social consequences of school based bulling, developed a coalition of educators, public health professionals, program specialists and other key partners to strategically address the issue. This five year effort has resulted in the largest U.S. implementation and evaluation of an internationally recognized bullying prevention initiative. The $ 9 million dollars did not come from the government, CDC or some other nationally recognized organization, but from a regional foundation that wanted to develop that program to assist their clients. Along the way they developed a national model – – action, not talk. In this coalition driven initiative involving approximately 250,000 children, 400 schools and thousands of teachers, parents, school bus drivers, and lunch room monitors bullying rates have decreased along with increased adult and bystander involvement. We are now reporting out on these positive findings as well as demonstrating the cost benefit to the health care system, the educational system and society. Thus, the action taking place in western Pennsylvania resulted in a comprehensive public health initiative involving an evidence based program; a large population; program implementation with high fidelity; extensive monitoring and evaluation to the point of evaluating not only a decline in bullying rates but other behavioral and health enhancements as well as a cost benefit to many segments of our society. It is certainly a confirmed call to action.