Summary

In this Study Session, you have learned that:

• Adolescent and youth reproductive health promotion needs to receive proper attention in order to protect young people from adopting risky behaviours that could negatively affect their health.
• There are a variety of ways to conduct health promotion for adolescents including school education, peer education, community conversation, and family life education. You can do promotion activities in schools, the community and at your health facility.
• The kind of health promotion messages appropriate for adolescents depend on their age, living arrangements and whether they are in school or out-of school.
• Peer education is one of the effective strategies used to improve young people’s reproductive and sexual health outcomes by providing the knowledge, skills and beliefs necessary to lead healthy lives.
• Adolescent family life education is an effective adolescent health promotion strategy. It provides knowledge on physical, mental, social, moral, behavioural and mood changes and developments during puberty.
• Community conversation is also one the key strategies that should be used to raise the community’s awareness and to bring about positive behaviours among adolescents and young people.
• Young adolescents (10–14) who live with their parents may have reproductive health problems such as early marriage and pregnancy leading to difficult child birth with later complications such as obstetric fistula. They may also experience sexual violence (including FGM, abduction, polygamy and rape).
• Adolescents in the age group 15–19 years face similar reproductive health risks such as sexual harassment, rape, abduction, FGM and polygamy. They are more likely to be married but if they have unwanted pregnancies they may resort to unsafe abortion. They are also more likely to acquire STIs such as HIV and to develop AIDS.
• Major issues among young people aged 20–24 years include; unemployment, gender-based violence, (rape, abduction), unwanted pregnancy/abortion, and sex in exchange for money or gifts. Because of this they have the greatest risk of STIs including HIV/AIDS.
• To effect positive behaviour change, you need to be active in training or sensitising community leaders, religious leaders and parliamentarians on SRH so that they too can advocate on access to information and services.