{"id":11186,"date":"2015-10-06T16:37:20","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T16:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/?p=11186"},"modified":"2018-04-22T12:04:04","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T16:04:04","slug":"adolescent-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/blog\/2015\/10\/adolescent-care\/","title":{"rendered":"UN agencies launch new standards to improve adolescent care worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two United Nations agencies\u2014the UN World Health Organization (WHO<\/a>) and the Joint UN Programme on HIV\/AIDS (UNAIDS<\/a>)\u2014announced today they have developed new standards for quality health-care services for adolescents, which aim to help countries improve services for people between the ages of 10 and 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese standards provide simple yet powerful steps that countries \u2013 both rich and poor \u2013 can immediately take to improve the health and wellbeing of their adolescents,\u201d said Dr. Anthony Costello, Director of Maternal, Children\u2019s and Adolescents\u2019 Health at WHO, in a\u00a0press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WHO and UNAIDS are underlining that existing health services often fail the world\u2019s adolescents, with many suffering from mental health disorders, substance use, poor nutrition, intentional injuries and chronic illness, while not having access to critical prevention and care services.<\/p>\n

According to the UN, adolescents form a unique group, rapidly developing both physically and emotionally but are often dependent on their parents or guardians. TheGlobal Standards for quality health-care services for adolescents <\/a>recommend making services more \u201cadolescent friendly\u201d, providing free or low-cost consultations, and making medically accurate age-appropriate health information available.<\/p>\n

They also highlight the need for adolescents to be able to access services without necessarily having to make an appointment or requiring parental consent, safe in the knowledge that any consultation remains confidential, and certain that they will not experience discrimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to keep adolescents healthy, we have to treat them with respect,\u201d Dr. Costello continued. \u201cAdolescents are particularly vulnerable to certain health issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

The top three causes of death among adolescents are reportedly road traffic injuries, AIDS-related illnesses and suicide.<\/p>\n

\u201cAIDS is the leading cause of death among adolescents in Africa and the second primary cause of death among adolescents globally,\u201d said Dr. Mari\u00e2ngela Sim\u00e3o, Director of Rights, Gender, Prevention and Community Mobilization at UNAIDS.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll adolescents, including key populations, have a right to the information and services that will empower them to protect themselves from HIV.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

WHO and UNAIDS further note that not only is adolescence a period of life when people are particularly vulnerable to certain health issues, it is also a time when critical behaviours are shaped that will affect health in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many behaviours \u2013 healthy or unhealthy \u2013 that impact the rest of our lives begin in adolescence,\u201d Dr. Costello explained. \u201cThe health sector cannot stand there and tell people they are sick because of the ways they use tobacco and alcohol, and their attitudes to diet and exercise, if it does not do a better job of helping people develop healthy habits as adolescents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Dr. Valentina Baltag, an adolescent health expert at WHO, said there are countries where every fifth citizen is an adolescent. \u201cYet most students in medical and nursing schools graduate with no understanding of the specific needs of adolescents in accessing healthcare. This is unacceptable,\u201d she warned.<\/p>\n

In light of all these issues, the Global Standards for quality health-care services for adolescents call for an inclusive package of information, counselling, diagnostic, treatment and care services that go beyond the traditional focus on sexual and reproductive health.<\/p>\n

They also push for adolescents to be meaningfully involved in planning, monitoring and providing feedback on health services and in decisions regarding their own care.<\/p>\n

The UN agencies have reported that more than 25 low and middle-income countries have already adopted national standards for improving adolescent health services, while their global standards are built on research from these countries, as well as feedback from health providers and more than 1000 adolescents worldwide.<\/p>\n

via UN News Centre<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two United Nations agencies\u2014the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint UN Programme on HIV\/AIDS (UNAIDS)\u2014announced today they have developed new standards for quality health-care services for adolescents, which aim to help countries improve services for people between the ages of 10 and 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":11191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,11,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reduced-inequality","category-health","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}