Ninth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

The delivery of health care services directed to young people has become a topic of increasing interest especially in the context of sexual and reproductive health (SRH). The national adolescent friendly clinics initiative (NAFCI) in South Africa based its development and implementation on the fact that offering services through public sector is the accessible and sustainable approach. The study explored perceptions of teenagers regarding their expectations of youth friendly services responsiveness to their sexual and reproductive health needs. Six focus groups and 198 surveys were conducted with boys. Survey results indicated the need for service that is closer (39%), offer services required by teenagers (20%), convenient (16%), other (10%) is the only service they know (9%), confidentiality is ensured (7%) and staff is friendly (6%). Focus group discussions were of the opinion that the conventional method of services delivery in the form of clinic and youth centres is no longer suited to meet their needs. They desire services to be ‘within their reach’, and to ‘come closer to people’. These findings indicate that participants have ideas and aspirations of a services that will reach young people and not young people reaching the services. Clearly a responsive health care programme can provide substantial benefits to the well-being of teenagers such as preventing unintended teenage pregnancy and will benefit the individual, society and future generations. Therefore, there is a dire need to transform the current service delivery model and explore other available avenues to ensure that health services reach teenagers.