Preparedness of County Referral Health Facilities in Implementing Adolescent Friendly Health Services: A Case of Mama Lucy Kibaki County Refferal Hospital, Kenya

Abstract

Health service delivery is a key pillar of the health system management .The World Health Organization recently emphasized the need to develop adolescent -friendly health services to improve the care provided to young people throughout the world. However, there is limited peer reviewed literature on this subject therefore necessitating assessment of whether the existing health facilities are prepared to implement the adolescent friendly health services. Adolescent friendly health services remains a relatively new and sensitive area mainly due to restrictive norms and policies guiding the services. After International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, countries started implementing adolescent friendly health services. The Government of Kenya together with partners in an attempt to address the health challenges came up with the Adolescent package of care (APOC) in 2013 whose guidelines were finalized in November 2014 and released for use by service providers . Despite this package of care, there is still ineffective staff capacity in relation to skills and knowledge gap of health professionals, training needs, health resources as well as health system factors that can affect implementation of AFHS. The study explored ways of mitigating or addressing the barriers to implementation of these services. The study used both quantitative and qualitative approaches to collect data. The study utilized survey research adapting descriptive cross sectional design and semi-structured questionnaire to interview 348 health care providers and 472 adolescents in Mam Lucy Kibaki Hospital from 3rd May 2014 to 16 June 2014 .The key informants were mainly nurses, clinical officers and Medical doctors who were working at the health service delivery area at the time of study and were interviewed using an interview guide. The managers at the hospital were interviewed using an in-depth interview guide while the adolescents were interviewed through interview guide and focused group discussion. Quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 18.0. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were performed to determine significant associations. The study established that sex, age, level of education and adolescent awareness about existence of friendly health services offered were significantly associated with utilization at p<0.05. Long queues, unfavorable working hours and lack of money negatively affected consumption of AFHS.The study concluded that the utilization of health services among the adolescents was low largely due to unfriendliness of the health care providers at health facilities and lack of awareness of AFHS services. In view of the findings, this study recommends need for the Government through the Ministry of Health and partners in health service provision to increase the number of AFHS and ensure that the recommendations of Adolescent Package of care is implemented fully with good evaluation strategies in place. Laborious awareness drives to sensitize the adolescent...

Sexual and reproductive health interventions for adolescents in Niger: Historical overview and stakeholder profile Health

“…Some of these studies have focused on effectiveness analysis by adopting quantitative or qualitative designs to assess the effects or impact of interventions on bene ciaries [4,5,[7][8][9][10][11][12]. Other studies have focused on the critical nodes of the implementation process, i.e., the design, implementation and effects or impact of an intervention [13][14][15][16][17]. However, very few studies exist that have provided a historical overview of the interventions implemented and the pro le of the key players in the eld of adolescent sexual and reproductive health.…”

“…Most of the available studies used experimental or quasi experimental designs to identify the effects attributable to ASRH interventions, thereby testing their effectiveness [7,24,26,27]. Other studies, on the other hand, have examined the effects of the context and the interactions between the players that emerge during the implementation of interventions [14,15]. The studies reviewed adopted qualitative or mixed designs, but most were limited to purely descriptive analyses [13][14][15][16][17][28][29][30][31][32][33][34].…”

“…Other studies, on the other hand, have examined the effects of the context and the interactions between the players that emerge during the implementation of interventions [14,15]. The studies reviewed adopted qualitative or mixed designs, but most were limited to purely descriptive analyses [13][14][15][16][17][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. However, very few of the studies identi ed and examined in our literature review analysed the history of ASRH interventions or mapped the actors involved in the process of developing and implementing these interventions.…”

Key informants’ perspectives on policy- and service-level challenges and opportunities for delivering adolescent and youth-friendly health services in public health facilities in a Nigerian setting

“…Individual barriers occur at the level of the adolescents including incorrect knowledge (including myths and misconceptions), limited self-efficacy and individual agency, and lack of access to correct information, among others [ 10 ]. In order to make significant progress in assuring optimum health for AYP, the key policy, programmatic and service-level stakeholders at both national and sub-national levels need to understand adolescent-specific issues [ 13 ]. This will enable them to run a system that has addressed values and morals that may conflict with providing care services to adolescents and young people [ 14 ], and be able to assure service recipients of confidentiality and privacy [ 8 , 15 ].…”