Adolescent health care givers urged to be proactive

Kumasi, Jan. 15, GNA - Dr Robert Mensah, Country Director of the African Youth Alliance (AYA), has appealed to adolescent sexual reproductive health care service providers to be more committed and proactive in their dealings with adolescents.

He said dealing with children required a lot of privacy and confidentiality and there was therefore the need for service providers to respect the rights of children who approached them for services. Dr Mensah made the appeal at the closing of a five-day training of trainers' workshop on the adolescent sexual reproductive health curriculum for nursing training institutions in the northern sector of the country in Kumasi on Friday.

The curriculum, which had been developed by the Nurses and Midwives Council in collaboration with AYA aimed at providing nursing institutions in the country with the necessary material that would enable them teach and equip nurses in the country with the requisite knowledge and skills to enable them provide quality adolescent sexual reproductive services to the youth in their various communities. Participants made up of principals and subject tutors from 24 nursing training institutions in the Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and West regions attended the workshop.

Dr Mensah said AYA considered the development of the curriculum as an important opportunity for the country's nurses to provide quality adolescent sexual reproductive health care to the youth to enable them make informed choices on their sexual lives.

He said the provision of adequate and timely information on sexual life to the youth would help reduce unwanted pregnancies and other social vices among the youth in the country.

Mrs Ruth Gyang, Registrar of the Nurses and Midwives Council, said the development of a specific curriculum on adolescent sexual reproductive health would give nurses deeper insight to enable them provide quality services to the youth.

This, according to her, would enable them make informed choices on their sexual life and also prevent them from contracting the HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Mrs Gyang thanked AYA for the support and urged the participants to work hard to achieve the desired results.