Adolescent Health Services

The purpose of this project is to provide easy access to a free, culturally appropriate, youth-friendly school-based health service for young people who do not access healthcare elsewhere. The first year of this project was externally evaluated by Massey University (report available).

There are two main components to this project which is managed by a staff member employed by Manaia Health PHO.

The first includes the provision of medical services (2hours per week) to students in secondary schools ~ this is currently provided in three secondary schools and the Alternative Education (AE) Consortium. Data collected from the medical clinics indicate that medical services are well utilised by students for a range of reasons, including general health assessments, sexual health, medical, musculo/skeletal, dermatological and psycho-social issues.

The other key component of this project is to develop integrated multi-disciplinary school health teams in each of the participating secondary schools. Regular monthly meetings are facilitated by the Youth Health Project coordinator (YHPC) – these are well attended, with membership including: school counselors, Family Planning, public health nurse, youth mental health services (Te Roopu Kimiora), Rubicon, student and community representatives, iwi providers and invited guests. Emerging health issues are identified and the team/s plan and/or implement strategies to address these issues. For example, issues around unplanned pregnancies and sexuality were identified as a key concern in one of the colleges, and a sexual health counsellor now provides services in the school environment. Smoking has been identified as a key issue across most secondary schools and the YHPC is currently involved in a collaborative project to address this.

A key area of focus over the past year has been on enhancing service delivery to students enrolled with the AE schools. Staff and practitioners working with the AE students have been concerned at the complex and multiple health and social needs experienced by these young people, and a number of strategies have been initiated to endeavour to address some of these needs. Examples include the provision of prescriptions free of charge, a collaborative approach with Northland Health community services to enable the students to access free dental services, and optimising up-take of MenZB immunisations.