Quality health care for adolescents

Abstract

The growing attention to the importance of universal health coverage raises challenges for all age groups. The focus of this chapter is on how the healthcare system can best respond to the health needs of adolescents and young adults. Historically, this cohort has been largely neglected by the healthcare system, which has had its primary focus on the health needs of women, children under 5 years old, and the elderly. When adolescents’ health needs have been recognized, the focus of service delivery has largely been through the lens of sexual and reproductive healthcare services including HIV. Notwithstanding the importance of sexual and reproductive healthcare services for young people, there is increasing consensus that the extent and breadth of the burden of disease in adolescents and young adults require a far wider response from the healthcare system. This chapter explores what young people expect from healthcare services. It reviews how healthcare services need to respond differently from earlier approaches that have essentially viewed adolescents as simply ‘older children’ or ‘younger adults.’ It describes the major barriers that adolescents encounter in using healthcare services and ends by describing how a standards-driven or indicator approach can help improve the quality of adolescent healthcare services by making quality standards and indicators more transparent and healthcare services more accountable.