Home | Programmes | RMNCH+A | Adolescent Health | ARSH
Background:
Adolescents are nation's future and investment in their development is critical. The government of India has a comprehensive package for meeting the multiple health needs of the adolescents and offers a roadmap for programmes and priorities that aim to address adolescent health.
The National Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health strategy provides a framework for a range of sexual and reproductive health services to be provided to the adolescents. The strategy incorporates a core package of services including preventive, promotive, curative and counseling services. Effective implementation of policies and programmes has progressed from the past few years and has lead to strengthening of Adolescent Friendly clinics and subsequently the outreach programmes. Glimpse of the Programmes under Adolescent Health:
| Adolescent clinics | Focuses on reorganizing the existing public health system in order to meet the service needs of adolescents. Under this programme counseling services, routine check-ups at primary, secondary and tertiary levels of care is provided on fixed days and fixed time to adolescents, married and unmarried, girls and boys during the clinic sessions. To make the clinics adolescent friendly, states have branded the clinics in the name of "Maitry in Maharashtra, UDDAN in Uttrakhand, Sneha in Karnatka and so on. The objective of it being addressing the stigma behind accessing the adolescent services. |
| ARSH training | All the health functionaries are made sensitive towards the health needs of the adolescents through a systematic training of 5 days for ANM/SN and 3 days for MO through State Institute of Health and Family Welfare. |
| Outreach programmes | Periodic health check-ups at the village health and nutrition days are conducted to provide services to adolescent girls who cannot access the clinic based services. The success of the programme being effective service delivery by the ANM and ASHA and selection and training of peer educators at the village level. 95244 peer educators have been selected across the country till now. |
| Convergence | To support the adolescent health issues across the country, partnerships with various other departments like WCD has been initiated with the ongoing SABLA programme |
