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ST. GEORGE’S, December 1, 2009 – Severeal persons from varying professional background – all with interest in youth development – are attending a four-day workshop that is examining issues impacting adolescents’ health.
The “Adolescent Health Training & Stakeholder Consultation Workshop”, which began Monday, is organized by the Grenada Ministry of Health and facilitated by Claudia Brann of the Pan American Health Organization.
In addressing the workshop’s opening, Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Allison Miller, applauded the imitative, saying that an effective health services system requires collaborative efforts.
Collaboration in prevention, early intervention and timely treatment could improve the health status of young people and prepare them for healthy adulthood, Ms. Miller said. It could also help decrease the incidence of many chronic diseases in adulthood, she added.
Ms. Miller told the participants that her ministry is cognizant of the quality health services’ criteria developed by the World Health Organization that can be applied to adolescent healthcare.
Those criteria, she said, can be best described as “fundamental instruments for healthcare’’ and include “accessibility, acceptability, appropriateness, effectiveness and equitability.’’
Ms. Miller gave the ministry’s commitment to ensuring health providers are equipped with the requisite competencies that can successfully combat the challenges associated with adolescent health. She stressed that it would not be done in a “superficial and unplanned manner’’ but instead would be “evidence-based.’’
Meanwhile, Hon. Patrick Simmons commended the Ministry of Health for recognizing the importance of including the Ministry of Youth Empowerment in the adolescent health care workshop.
Mr. Simmons, Minister of Youth Empowerment and Sports, described the workshop’s collaborative approach as one that forges “necessary linkages’’ to guide policies that can better address and provide for Grenadian youth, especially at a time when many social ills confront many young people.
In order to seriously address the issues that affect young people a collaborative approach is necessary, Minister Simmons emphasized.
