Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health

ADOLESCENT/YOUTH
SEXUAL AND
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
INTRODUCTION
According to WHO, adolescents are persons

aged 10-19 years; and youth is a person aged
15-24 years.
Kenya has over 10 million young people
(10-24years) constituting about 36% of the
population.
Adolescents constitute about 25.9% of the
population
Why pay attention to the health of the
youth
To reduce death and disease to

adolescents now.
To reduce the burden of disease in later life.
To invest in health today and tomorrow
To promote human rights
To protect human capital
Problems experienced by youths and
adolescents
Lack of reproductive knowledge and

information.
Malnutrition
Menstrual problems
Harmful cultural practices
Early and unprotected sex
Reasons for early sexual exposure;
i. Curiosity
ii. Peer influence
iii. Expectation of gifts and money
iv. Coercion
v. Prove of love
Cont..
Abortions
Sexually transmitted infections
Drug and substance abuse
Sexual abuse
Mental health
Barriers in improving adolescent sexual
and reproductive health
Inadequate access by adolescents

and youths to reproductive health
information and youth friendly
services.
Inadequate focus of reproductive
health programme to adolescent and
youths with valid needs.
Priority actions
To improve the sexual and reproductive health

of adolescent and youth by;
Ensuring that adolescent and youth have full
access to sexual and RH information and
services.
Establishing high quality comprehensive and
integrated youth friendly reproductive health
services addressing diverse needs of
adolescents and youths.
Cont..
 Promoting multisectoral approach in

addressing adolescents’ sexual and
reproductive health needs.
 Strengthening partnerships and referrals
with NGOs and FBOs working with youths
mostly those who are hard to reach.
YOUTH FRIENDLY SERVICES
This refers to services that are accessible, acceptable

and appropriate for adolescents and youths.
They are in the right place at the right price(free where
necessary)
They are delivered in the right style to be acceptable to
young people .
They are effective, safe and affordable.
They meet individual needs of the people who return
when they need to and recommend these services to
friends (WHO)
Challenges in establishing youth friendly
services
1. Overcoming barriers to establishing youth

friendly services since young people are
poor seekers of health services.
2. Providing RH services to young people is
a public sensitive issue. Discussion of RH
to youth is considered sensitive due to
cultural issues and because providing
3. Staff/providers can be negative
ambivalent about providing RH services to
youth. This may be due to religious and
cultural background professional training
and orientation.
4. Making RH services youth friendly
require additional training, time and cost.
Approaches for delivery of youth friendly
services
Targeted
This refers to a situation where services are
designed and planned for youths alone and
are offered in settings that meet only the
needs of the youth and not include other
groups.
Services may be; clinical, non-clinical or both.
Integrated
Refer to a situation where young people
receive services as part of the general
population but special arrangements are
made to make the services more
acceptable to them.
Minimum services for youth friendly
services
Irrespective of which approach is

adopted, certain minimum conditions
have to be met if the needs of young
people have to be adequately met.
These include;
1) Affordability and accessibility.
2) Safe and basic range of services
3) Privacy and confidentiality
4) Provider competence and attitude
5) Quality and consistency
6) Reliability and sustainability
7) Inbuilt monitoring and evaluation system
Characteristics of youth friendly services
They are divided into two:

1. Service and facility characteristics
2. Provider and staff characteristics
Service and facility characteristics
1. Convenient hours/special time set aside;

Many youths are either in school or involved
in other things most of the day.
Facilities offering services to the youths
should fix special sessions during late
afternoons, after school or work, during
weekends or holidays in order to make it
possible for youths to attend
2. Acceptable cost;
Young people are generally nervous of being
seen by family, friends or neighbors seeking
RH services.
Any added cost including distance may be a
perfect excuse not to seek RH services.
RH services should be provided locally and at
a pocket friendly or minimal cost.
3. Adequate/separate space and sufficient
privacy
There should be ample space for provision of
information, education and communication
on health, counseling and examinations.
Where there is no special space, special
corners can be established to ensure privacy.
4. Comfortable secure surroundings
Young people are attracted to a facility
which is comfortable.
There should be adequate sitting
arrangement, informality and youthful
environment with posters and literatures
displayed conveniently.
Provider and staff characteristics
1. Specially trained staff;

Staffs selected to work in a youth friendly
site must be understanding and sensitive to
the health concerns of the youths.
They must have appropriate and good
interpersonal skills and being able to
interact freely putting them at ease and
encourage them to share their needs and
their concerns freely.
2. Respect to young people;
Negative provider attitude have made
youths reluctant to seek reproductive
health services.
Younger staff or adults who are young at
heart, are ideal for youth friendly sites.
Older staffs must demonstrate positive
attitude in working with youths.
3. Peer counsellors available
Many times young people feel more
comfortable talking to their peers about
sensitive issues.
Youth friendly services should
incorporate trained peer counsellors to
deal with youth concerns that do not
require technical or clinical expertise.
4. Privacy and confidentiality
Providers should assure the youth that
their confidentiality and privacy would
be respected at all cost ensuring no
information is leaked to other people
including the parents.
5. Adequate time for client and provider
interaction.
Young people value attention and
understanding concerning their health.
Staff providing counselling services should
offer adequate time with them to discuss and
dispel any hindering myths related to their
concerns.
Supportive elements of youth friendly
services
1. Youth involvement-:
young people know better how to
identify their health and related needs
and therefore in a better position to
prescribe solutions in meeting their
needs.
2. Group discussions
In a youth friendly site, group discussions and
talks on various aspects of health particularly
those related to reproductive and sexual
health, should occur routinely.
A schedule of topics and times should be
widely published to allow as many as
possible young people to attend.
3. Necessary referral mechanisms
In all cases, any facility offering youth
friendly services must have an effective
way of referring youth who need more
specialized services.
4. Wide range of services (one-stop shop)
Health services offered in youth friendly site
should meet the widest possible available
range of needs for youths.
Particularly services related to; sexual and
reproductive health e.g. counseling, STI
diagnosis and treatment , STI prevevtion and
VCT etc.
5. Education material available on site and
to take away;-
IEC materials particularly those critical
issues on sexual and reproductive health
should be available for youths to read
and to take away.
6. Community mobilization:-
Any youth friendly services established
without the support of the community is
likely to fail.
Therefore, the involvement of the
community in planning and establishing
such services will help in mobilizing
support and ensuring a long term
sustainability of such services.
ASSIGNMENT
Your are a nurse manager working in

county X and the governor request you to
start a youth friendly service in the county
since there is none.
Describe the process you would go
through in establishing the service.

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ADOLESCENT/YOUTH

According to WHO, adolescents are persons

To reduce death and disease to

Lack of reproductive knowledge and

Inadequate access by adolescents

To improve the sexual and reproductive health

 Promoting multisectoral approach in

This refers to services that are accessible, acceptable

1. Overcoming barriers to establishing youth

Irrespective of which approach is

They are divided into two:

1. Convenient hours/special time set aside;

1. Specially trained staff;

Your are a nurse manager working in

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