Use of nonprofessional volunteers with pregnant teenagers

The future funding needs of perinatal programs for teenagers should motivate adolescent clinics to make creative use of nonprofessional volunteers. When adequately trained and supervised, volunteers can perform meaningful tasks with high-risk teenage patients. In this program, volunteer involvement not only has extended the staff's capacity to counsel effectively and to educate pregnant adolescents but also has augmented the program's effectiveness by providing rewards to reinforce patient compliance with nutrition and weight control. This paper provides some guidelines to medical professional who want to improve the volunteer efforts of other adolescent pregnancy programs. Such perinatal services must begin to capitalize on the resources of the volunteer sector if such programs are to continue and eventually expand to meet the needs of the pregnant teenager.