Adolescent Health Care in India: Progressive, Regressive or at the Cross-Roads?

Abstract

India has a sizeable adolescent population. Adolescents constitute a vulnerable population for both mental and physical illnesses, and yet their health-care needs and delivery systems are neither well defined nor developed. Many of the mental, reproductive and nutritional health needs of this population are required to be addressed and can be addressed in the primary-care pediatric setting itself if the current system of health-care can be re-organized. This restructuring will be more effective for this population if adolescent friendly approaches, public-private partnership and policy as well as sectoral linkage between the NRHM and other national programs are achieved. The health program for this age group should have promotive and preventive as well as remedial and curative components. Also, improving the availability of trained personnel in these areas of health, culturally sensitive evidence based approaches and capacity building in the primary-care approach is essential to ensure the viability of adolescent health-care in this country.

Making Health Services Adolescent-Friendly in Northeastern Peninsular Malaysia: A Mixed-Methods Study

“…Engaging with adolescents to tackle their health problems requires training of various levels of healthcare personnel and strategies to build capacities that are immediately needed. This could involve promotive, preventive, and curative components in the existing training or newer initiatives for adolescent health management [35]. In line with our study findings, Motuma, Syre, Egata, and Kenay [21] reported in their study that competency and knowledge of providers will play a vital role in the kind of information youths will obtain and indirectly determine the health outcome of adolescents.…”