Preventive Health Guidelines & Health Policy for Adolescents

Preventive Health Guidelines

There is a current health crisis created by changes in adolescent morbidity and mortality during the past several decades that requires a fundamental change in the emphasis of adolescent services.Some of the major health threats this population is facing include, unintended pregnancy, STDs including HIV, alcohol and drug abuse, and eating disorders. The overwhelming majority of both poor health status/outcomes and deaths to adolescents are preventable.

This fundamental change in services should shift to a greater number of services being directed at the primary and secondary prevention of the major health threats facing today?s youth.

There is broad national agreement that all adolescents should receive a regular set of preventive services. Here are two examples of the most recognized preventive health guidelines for this population.

Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS)

This monograph is a comprehensive set of recommendations that provides a framework for the organization and content of preventive health services.

• Download guidelines (pdf)
• Recommendations are around health care service delivery, using health guidelines, screenings, and immunizations. There are three questionnaires to assist in implementation, these are available for download from the GAPS initiative, available in both English and Spanish.

Bright Futures from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau

Bright Futures is a national health promotion initiative dedicated to the principle that every child deserves to be healthy and that optimal health involves a trusting relationship between the health professional, the child, the family, and the community as partners in health practice.

On this sitewww.brightfutures.org/ you will find publications, distance education opportunities, training tools, and other resources.

Health Policy

Public health has a critical role to play in assessing and addressing the health of adolescents. Among the ten essential public health services in place to guide profesionals in the promtion of adolescent health, there are several which pertain to health policy.

• Informing and educating families, youth and the general public about adolescent health and development issues.
  
  
• Mobilizing community partnerships among policy makers, healthcare providers, youth, families, the general public and others to identify and address adolescent health issues.
  
  
• Providing leadership for priority-setting, planning and policy development to support community efforts that promote and maximize the health of adolescents.

Policy Guides

The following resources have been identified as key national policy priorities and useful guiding principles to follow when working with adolescent populations.

Healthy People 2010 - 21 Health Indicators
The goal of this National Initiative to Improve Adolescent Health by the Year 2010 (National Initiative) is to attain 21 Critical Objectives (of the 97 Healthy People 2010 objectives for adolescents and young adults) for 10-24 year-olds and measure these objectives at the national and state levels.

Conceptual Framework (pdf) from the Partnership for Adolescent Health, is a consensus document developed collaboratively with national and state experts in the field of adolescent health. The Framework includes: key definitions, guiding principles, and vision statements. Other products from the Partnership are the policy agenda (pdf) and systems capacity tool (pdf).

Improving Adolescent Health (pdf) 
A comprehensive document which provides an overview of six policy goals around adolescent health: improving access and environments; increasing the role of schools in health; promoting positive health; and improving transitions to adulthood and collaborative relationships. These emerged from a synthesis of the recommendations that were selected from the 36 source documents that were reviewed for this report. It is a product of the National Adolescent Health Information Center of the University of California San Francisco.

America's Adolescents: Are They Healthy? (pdf) 
This overview of adolescents provides mortality and morbidity data primarily around risky behaviors and draws on many data resources. Specific sections include: demographic features of the adolescent population, adolescents and the health care system, adolescent health status, and multiple risk-taking.

Research Priorities: An Analysis and Synthesis of Research Recommendations (pdf) 
The information for this report from NAHIC was compiled through an analysis of 53 national documents written by government agencies, private foundations, professional organizations, and/or national task forces that were focused on adolescents or youth. There are four major content areas for research in the recommendations: adolescent development, social and environmental contexts, health-related behaviors, and physical and mental disorders.

Developing Adolescents (pdf) (American Psychological Association, 2002) 
This document presents research findings on cognitive, physical, social, emotional, and behavioral aspects of adolescent development in an accessible way. The purpose is to guide professionals working with adolescents in many different contexts by describing the characteristics of adolescents and aspects of the context in which they live that make a difference in promoting healthy adolescent development.

The Health of America's Middle Childhood Population (pdf) 
Summarizes and synthesizes available national data concerning the health and well-being of the middle childhood population, and identifies the existing gaps in middle childhood health data and research.

Building a Strong Foundation (pdf): Creating a Health Agenda for the Middle Childhood Years
This document presents a framework that serves as a basis for the development and implementation of an effective research and policy agenda to promote middle childhood health. These last two documents are from the Public Policy Analysis and Education Center for Middle Childhood and Adolescent Health. The research behind the two documents on middle childhood health has greatly contributed to the understanding of children's health during the middle childhood years, a period that has received little attention from researchers and policy makers.