Enabling medical professionals to respond effectively and with sensitivity to the needs of adolescents

Adolescence is a period when important changes occur in an individual's life. It is a period of both risk to health and well-being, and of opportunity to set the stage for healthy adulthood. Most adolescents are healthy, but a small (and in some places not so small) proportion of them face health (including both physical and psychological) problems as well as social problems. Many individuals and institutions have important contributions to make in ensuring the health of adolescents. Medical professionals have crucial contributions to make--both as service providers and as community-change agents. Studies from many places show that adolescents value medical professionals as credible sources of help, and reach out to them for health information and services, albeit in small numbers. However, studies from many parts of the world suggest that medical professionals are unable and/or unwilling to respond to the needs of adolescents effectively and with sensitivity. There is growing recognition of the public-health benefits of strengthening the technical as well as the inter-personal competencies of medical professionals, and of helping them clarify their attitudes so that they could deal with adolescents with understanding and respect. Initiatives in this area are under way in many countries. WHO strongly supports these capacity-building initiatives, and urges that orientation and training programmes be followed up with ongoing support to enable medical professionals to perform to the best of their abilities. WHO also stresses the importance of informing and engaging families and communities to support the provision of health information and services to young people.