(Editorial Maintaining optimum health across the lifespan is the key objective of the Ministry of Health. This includes that of the adolescent population of the Bahamas.)
Adolescent Health is an area of medicine, which focuses on the health of adolescents. There are several components, which include the physical and psychological well being of adolescents. Here in The Bahamas, and in keeping with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) standards, the services are directed to persons between the ages 9 to 21 years.
At the Adolescent Health Center a wide range of services are offered which are geared towards promoting healthy lifestyles- through the provision of health care and health education. The Center is located here on the island of New Providence, Nassau, at the junctions of School Lane and Shirley Street to the South and Dowdeswell Street to the North.
Service provision include:
Clinic based – physical health assessment of mother and child up to age 18, to include pediatric, antenatal, postnatal, family planning, and child health clinics.
Counseling and psychological services – which include counseling children and adolescents who may be experiencing difficulty at home and/or school or with peers or siblings in either setting. These services are also extended to antenatal clients.
Community based services – which focus predominantly on health education within the schools, community and civic organizations on sexuality and other teen issues.
Persons generally associate the Adolescent Health Center with sexually active and/or pregnant teens. However, the center provides health care services to other youth populations including adolescent males. In fact the center is available to and provides health care services to all adolescent who needs to have their health needs met, whether it be a need for a routine health assessment, or addressing a physical or psychological health concern. Adolescents can report to the center at any time of the workday – Monday to Friday between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. and the staff will provide the required service or make the necessary referral should the need be of a nature outside of those available at the center.
Clinic schedule are:
Monday–morning (9:00am)………..Pediatric clinic Immunization/well baby
Monday – afternoon (2:00pm)………Family planning
Tuesday – morning (9:00am)………..Antenatal /postnatal clinic
Wednesday morning (10:00am)……..Parentcraft (at the PACE center)
Wednesday –afternoon (2:00pm)……SCAN clinic
Thursday – morning (9:00am)……….Antenatal, postnatal, and sick baby
Friday – morning (9:00am) ………Parentcraft classes (at the center)
DAILY (9:00am – 5:00pm.) ………Counselling Services
Currently the services are widely used by the adolescent population particularly with respect to the antenatal and parenting services.
With the passage of time, the staff hopes to expand the services currently available to include health promoting services for the adolescent male population, with special emphasis on positive character building, including skills development for resisting peer pressure and positive conflict resolution.
With regards to the increasingly high rate of adolescent pregnancies or deliveries, in our society staff from the Centre report a decline in the incidence of pregnancies in this population both in the public and private sector – based on recent statistics for the year 2002. This reduction is due in part to the sexual education initiatives undertaken by the Center and other Youth Focused entities.
The health care team at the center prides it self in being user friendly and encourages the public – adolescents and their families to come in and have their health care needs fully met, with the assurance that the will be satisfied with the service they receive.
They also acknowledge the contribution of other members of the society (civic groups, the church and corporate citizens) in helping to enrich the lives of our youths and subsequently assisting them in leading healthy productive lives. They invite others to join in the efforts currently being made with a view to positively expanding and enhancing the growth, health and development of our nation’s youth?
The advice offered by the team to parents, in helping their adolescents to develop positively, whilst overcoming peer pressure and other challenges that negatively impact their health and general well being, is that they spend quality time with their children – become intimately involved in all aspect of their lives, being a positive mentor, confident and role model, knowing who their friends are, encouraging positive relationship with their peers and discouraging negative ones, monitoring and (where possible) controlling the environments in which they engages their interest and energy, whether at home, school or other social settings. These all impact the (immediate and future) health, well-being and development of our children and future leaders of our society.
For more information on "Adolescent Health Services" pleases contact The Adolescent Health Center of the Ministry of Health at telephone numbers 328-3248 and/or 328-3249.
