South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 31

Bil Sun-Sentinel, Monday, August 22, 1988 Section RAY RECCHI Lifestyle Columnist Teen boys targets for health care BROADCAST fiiii MOVE iill yy lS? By BETSY A. LEHMAN Th Boston Globe t's been going on for years; teenage boys are the "great absent" from the American health care scene, says Dr. Norman P. Spack, a specialist in adolescent Wonder where all your favorite South Florida newscasters have gone? A 'customer service9 becomes disservice I By MARLA WILLIAMS Staff Writer hat with the net someone had told me a year ago that I would ever feel even the slightest twinge of pity for a loan representative, I would still be laughing. After all, according to a recent evaluation works swapping stations, and reporters being fired and reporters being Jill Beach, formerly of WSVN-Ch.

7, now with WKYC-Ch. 3 in Cleveland: "Tell everyone I say hello. I miss South Florida so much. Although, I have to tell you, I've only been here a few weeks and already I feel very close to this community." 0 A A I hired and still more reporters moving on, you're not just confused you're downright lonely. Where oh where have your favorite broadcasters gone? On to bigger TV towns (mostly), where they're sporting bigger hair (mostly), a sure sign they're bigger names (think of Oprah).

A lucky few have even made network news. But how are they really doing? Well, we talked to some of them those not working on deadline or packing for a trip to some far-off hotbed of news and wrote down what they said. Jill Beach "Tell everyone I say hello. I miss South Florida so much." It's true, Beach is feeling a little homesick. But don't worry, she's bound to be all right.

Miami's (former) Best-Dressed Hometown Reporter is the toast of NBC's WKYC-Ch. 3 in Cleveland, where she began work on Aug. 1. (Cleveland, believe it or not, is a bigger TV town. MiamiFort Lauderdale ranks 16th, Cleveland holds 11th place.) And although Cleveland is a wonderful place, Beach says, it's not home.

"It really isn't. Although, I have to tell you, I've only been here a few weeks and already I feel very close to this community. It's really opened its arms to me." Just to show how nice people have been, the first day Beach went on the air, as co-anchor of Channel 3's prime-time news show, she received all kinds of flowers and good luck cards from people she'd met around town. "A waiter I'd met sent me a couple roses, the gal who runs the Women's City Club sent a big bouquet, I even got a really nice little note from a woman who had just moved to Akron from Boca Raton. She'd been watching me for years." And you know what else? What makes it nice for Beach at Channel "Nobody was fired to make room for me on the news desk.

The anchor-woman left to go to Philadelphia, SEE BROADCAST 4D Bret Lewis, formerly of WSVN-Ch. 7, now with KNBC-Ch. 4 in Los Angeles: "There are roughly 720 zillion teams out here and I've had to learn a lot of new names. And I'd like to point out that KNBC became No. 1 after! arrived." medicine in Newton, Mass.

Specialists across the country agree. Boys, they say, don't see doctors unless they're injured, very sick or need a form signed in order to play sports, get a job or go to school. They don't make appointments, and if they do, they may not show up. Adult men don't see doctors as often as women do, either. Care for teen-agers is the focus of lots of attention right now, with teen clinics being set up in schools, hospitals and health centers.

The American Medical Association is encouraging doctors to involve teen-agers, and Congress has commissioned a major study of teenagers' health needs. But so far, the attention hasn't gotten teen-age boys into examining rooms. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health funds a variety of health programs for teen-agers, many specifically intended to reach boys. Even so, 84 percent of those served are female. "Adolescent boys are extremely low users of the health care system," says Dr.

No one says that teen--age boys don't have health problems. But boys tend to avoid the health-care system. Howard R. Spivak, deputy health commissioner. In surveys of clinics around San Francisco serving teens, the ratio of girls to boys ranges from 3-1 to 8-1, says Dr.

Mary-Ann Shafer of the University of California at San Francisco, head of the American Academy of Pediatrics' section on adolescent health. One reason for the disparity, she says, is that girls may see doctors because of painful menstrual periods or to get contraception. Once they're in the office, they can talk about other health concerns, too. There is no such obvious stepping-stone into health care for teenage boys. Machismo, fear Other reasons boys stay away, spe-.

cialists say, are machismo, fear and youthful denial of mortality. "Men don't usually go see the doctor till they're half -dead," says Dr. Robert P. Masland chief of adolescent and young adult medicine at Children's Hospital in Boston. The clinic for teen-agers at Children's Hospital, opened in 1951, was the first in the nation.

It sees 60 percent to 65 percent girls and 35 percent to 40 percent boys. Says Masland: "I relate to this as I think young boys would relate during adolescence avoid doctors at all costs. Because the doctor may, one, find something wrong with you and it might have something to do with your growth and development, not only height and weight but sexual development, and you would not want to face up to that. "And second, a young boy may be fearful that some of his thoughts, fears, fantasies, depression, that the doctor might find out he's a little bit different. And I don't want a doctor to tell me I need to see a psychiatrist.

"Another reason a boy would not want to see a doctor is doctors tend to be very authoritarian, and I'm not going to have anyone else tell me what to do. I'm going to take care of myself." In addition, specialists say, teenagers, and perhaps particularly boys, are uneasy in many pediatricians' waiting rooms, dominated by young children, mothers and toys. They're equally uneasy in adult health settings, which seem overwhelming and oriented toward old people. Nor are most doctors trained to talk to teen-agers about the kind of health concerns they have sexuality, drugs, of 250 professions by The Jobs Rated Almanac, bank officer was ranked No. 11 and journalist was all the way down at 126.

Besides, the job of a bank officer is to look after the interests of the bank and mistrust you until you prove otherwise, which explains why nearly every experience I have ever had with such people has left me one step short of insanity. Still, I admit I do feel a little pity for some loan representatives today. As a matter of fact, I've felt that way for a few weeks now, ever since the first time I heard a radio commercial touting one bank's new customer service gimmick. According to the commercial, the loan representatives for this particular bank have started wearing beepers. So any time you have a question about your loan, you can just beep the poor sap, who will immediately drop what he is doing and call back to answer you.

Even if the question occurs to you on Saturday when the bank is closed, says the commercial, you can still beep your representative. "They won't mind," says the announcer. How much hassle can they take? Well, what kind of jerks are these representatives anyway, that they won't mind? You would have to be either a moron or automaton not to mind having some fool interrupt your weekend to get the answer to a question that is probably stupid in the first place. Somehow, I find it hard to believe that these people won't mind. What if they're on a family picnic, for example, or painting the roof, coaching a Little League game or perhaps in the middle of a romantic encounter? 1 don't know about you, but I'd mind a lot.

Nevertheless, these pitiable characters are obviously being forced to wear the electronic leashes that leave them at the mercy of anyone who wants to yank them away from their private lives to answer stupid questions. After all, even in the unlikely event that the question is reasonably intelligent and the more unlikely event that the representative knows the answer, there's nothing else you can do about it until Monday anyway. Still, if it ended there, I would merely breathe a heavy sigh, shake my head and forget about it. But it doesn't end there. Because every time one company expands its service that way, the others must follow to maintain competitive parity.

Then someone in another business decides it's not a bad idea. And so on. The next thing you know, all of us are wearing beepers and wondering how it happened. What goes around, comes around I sound like a ranting alarmist, you say? Well then, how did so many people end up working on Sundays when, only one generation ago, hardly anyone had to work on Sundays? Because one company decided to take advantage of the fact that everyone else was closed, by opening on Sunday. Eventually, almost every other company was forced to follow suit to keep up.

And how did we end up paying twice as much for gasoline and having to pump it ourselves to boot? Because one company decided to cut down on expenses by offering self-service to keep the price down. Soon everyone was offering self-service and charging the same prices, which are higher than ever, by the way. Don't ask me how, exactly, but we also ended up buying motor oil at the drugstore and bread at the gas station. So pardon me if I don't consider it progress for loan representatives to carry beepers. I'd be satisfied if they would just return my calls to their offices and give me straight answers during regular business hours.

As a matter of fact, I'd feel more comfortable doing business with a bank or loan company that allows its employees to leave their work at the office on weekends. Unfortunately for all of us, Monday always comes too soon anyway. A. i. Alan Mendelson, formerly of WTVJ-Ch.

4, now with Fox Network in Los Angeles: "They were really serious about the mustache thing. God, the makeup people even darkened it with pencil the first two months." i cN.v!iiSi: ib if Vi, III 1 1 mgkw. Mtti. WiUSiMM tr- m. Sim, "a If Above: As the money man on WTVJ-Ch.

4, Alan Mendelson was clean-shaven. Right: In Los Was llCdll-MldVCH. IXlglll. Ill INSIDE AGING Medicare will pay 80 percent on the cost of a mammogram starting on Jan. 1, 1990.

This provision is one of several added to the I Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act and marks the first time coverage has been extended to prevention. Political watchdogs consider the move encouraging. 3D I IL.S.. irj I Angeles, he's more hirsute. nie photos see health 4D Solitude good for the single's soul, author says hear, or say ourselves, very often.

ed some of the time? By MOIRA BAILEY Until now. If singles get past the fear factor, they The Orlando Sentinel Anthony Storr sees nothing wrong with such a re- that being alone has some big-league bent Want to make a single person un- quest. The British author and retired professor of psy- promotes solitude as a vitamin for the emot comfortable? chiatry is busily promoting the advantages of solitude, jump-starter for creative batteries. Solitu Just say the lone-words: Loneli- which just happens to be the name of his new book, great for rejuvenating relationships, ness, lonely, lonesome, loner, alone. Storr, who has been anything but alone on the talk- Storr also has plenty to say about why wi The last word is the clincher.

show circuit, doesn't advocate the Garbo extreme. His so bad. show circuit, doesn't advocate the Garbo extreme. His If singles get past the fear factor, they that being alone has some big-league benefits. promotes solitude as a vitamin for the emotions jump-starter for creative batteries.

Solitude Storr also has plenty to say about why we so bad. would find Storr and a can be think it' premise is that solitude can be a good thing. Solitude, ENTERTAINMENT The tiny Theatre Club of The Palm Beaches, which began just a year ago, is building on its success by adding an extra play and extending the run by one week on all of the shows for the winter season. 6D The push to constantly connect starts early in life Parents pass along their own awkwardness about be ing by themselves. Instead of encouraging children to play or read alone, many parents say "Why don't you call up so and so?" Later in life we hear more of the same from psychiatrists, who, according to Storr, "have overpushed intimate, interpersonal relationships as the only way to happiness." Storr's philosophy of solitude is that we occasionally need to hang a "Gone Fishing" sign on our lives In stead of being overwhelmed by loneliness, we can choose to be recharged by solitude.

"Alone" the idea of it, the fear of it, the mere utterance of it is something that doesn't sit well with people, particularly if they're single. Singles in the 1980s are obsessed with connecting. They are continually fed the notion that their emotional good health rests in relationships. From kindergarten playgrounds to college mixers to retirement villages, society places the emphasis on being with people. Would Greta Garbo be half as famous if she hadn't told us, "I want to be A half-century later, Garbo's request still comes across as odd, discomfiting.

It's something we don't like intimacy, is part of a balanced emotional diet. Better to find peace, strength and inspiration in being alone than to panic at the very thought of it. Singles typically guard against that panic by filling their time with places to go, work to do and people to see. The minute they get home they flip on the television so voices will fill the room and create the illusion of companionship. Singles automatically associate being alone with loneliness.

They feel a little guilty if they spend much time by themselves. But what about the importance of being unconnect Television 50 Advice 20 Movie Times 7D Judy Benge 3D Comics 8D Currents 3D Horoscope 90 The Stars This Week 40.