The St Lucia Red Cross, in collaboration with the Child and Adolescent Health Program and the Community Nursing Program of the Ministry of Health, is undertaking a project to promote youth friendly services and spaces. Financial and technical support for the project is being provided by UNFPA.
One of the main components of the project is to pilot a youth clinic at the Babonneau Health Centre in St Lucia.
The pilot will include the following activities:
- youth clinics
- posting of a sign promoting the youth clinic
- education sessions conducted by trained peer educators
- basic audio/visual equipment to be installed at the health centre
- Access to posters, leaflets, promoting youth health
A research element has also been included in the project. The research will allow investigation into the attitudes, perceptions, and knowledge of the health service providers and the youth clients. The methodology to be used includes, in-depth interviews with youth clients, focus-groups discussions and observations.
To achieve the objective of the project, thirty young persons attended a training session to develop their skills and knowledge to mobilize their peers to access the services at the Babonneau Clinic, and to advocate for the provision of youth friendly services at other health service settings, both private and public. The training was conducted at the Palm Haven Hotel, Rodney Bay, from Wednesday 10th, to Friday 12th September 2008. Sessions began at 9:00 am and concluded at 4:00pm each day.
Some key topics covered during the training included:
- Legal framework for youth access to health services
- Gender, youth and sexual reproductive health rights
- HIV 101
- Case-studies of social marketing campaigns undertaken in Trinidad and Tobago
- Steps in planning an advocacy campaign
On day three of the workshop, participants were engaged in group assignments to develop the mobilization campaign. They designed t-shirts, billboards, signs, text-messages etc. in the mobilization campaign. Essential in the campaign was the development of a name for the clinic. The agreed name was Safe and Secure, the tag--line of the clinic is, “learn something, before you try anything”.
Other activities of the project include a skill-sharing exercise between health service providers from the Adolescent Health Unit of the Ministry of Health in Guyana and community health service providers from St Lucia. The health service providers from Guyana will be on island from Monday 15th to Wednesday 17th September, 2008.
The provision of youth friendly services may be the key to curbing HIV and other health issues amongst young persons. The provision of these services must be carried out with urgency and expediency. It is important to reach adolescents who are at risk of undermining their sexual health before they begin to engage in behaviours that will be detrimental to their sexual health. It is also important to identify adolescents whose health is already undermined. To achieve this therefore, the health services environment must be conducive and welcoming to young persons.
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Caribbean Red Cross Youth |
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Strengthening Red Cross Youth |
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