The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has launched the 2023 National Adolescent Health Advocacy Week in Cape Coast with a call on stakeholders to increase investment in the promotion of adolescents’ health as Ghana strives to achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030.

The Adolescent Health Advocacy Week is set aside to shine the spotlight on issues affecting adolescent health and to collectively find solutions to them.
This year’s celebration is on the theme: “Every Adolescent Counts: Accessible Health Care for All”.

Throughout the week, there would be stakeholder engagements with communities, teachers, parents, as well as the media to identify and address issues affecting adolescent health at both the individual and societal levels.

Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, the Central Regional Minister, in a speech read on her behalf, said stakeholders must channel more resources and energy into addressing the health needs of adolescents holistically to ensure no one was left behind to secure the future of the country.

She maintained that every young person, irrespective of their background, deserved the right to access comprehensive health care without any impediment, indicating that many adolescents faced numerous challenges in accessing essential healthcare services.

“Adolescents’ health care goes beyond mere medical care; it is a holistic approach, which includes mental health, sexual and reproductive health, and the provision of accurate information that empowers adolescents to make informed choices,” she said.

The Minister observed a gradual but significant shift towards prioritising adolescent health care, including increased awareness, access, and engagement but insisted that more needed to be done.

“Together, let us make a lasting impact on the lives of adolescents, for they are not just the future; they are an integral part of our present, deserving health, happiness, and the opportunity to thrive,” she said.

Dr Mrs Marion Okoh-Owusu, the Central Regional Director of Health Services, noted that the region had achieved significant success in awareness creation and service delivery for adolescent health in schools, communities, and health facilities.

She was, however, quick to add that measures such as providing young people with age-appropriate information and teaching them about the dangers of having sex must be intensified to consolidate the gains.

“Wherever we are, let us make the time for our adolescents. They need to hear from us.

“They see us and they want to be like us but most of them are ill-informed because of peer pressure and other myths they hear from the communities and the media,” she noted.

Dr Mrs. Okoh-Owusu said the GHS had prioritized and intensified adolescent health care in schools by ensuring that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card was a requirement for admission.

“The school clinics are now functional, and the health service has assigned nurses to support in the provision of services for the schools.

“The schools have also been linked up to some of the hospitals so that when faced with severe emergencies, they can refer them to the bigger hospitals,” she said.

She stressed the need for all stakeholders to get involved in enhancing access to health care for young people in the country as it was not the duty of health professionals alone.

Madam Adjoa Yenyi, the Programmes Specialist, Adolescent and Youth Development at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), observed that even though Ghana was making significant progress in adolescent health care, the country was not likely to achieve UHC by 2030.

She, therefore, reiterated the urgent need to increase investment in that area to meet the health needs of young people and propel Ghana towards the mark.
She noted that because adolescents were part of the general population, they were normally integrated into the mainstream population.

“But there is a need to make a conscious effort to invest in young people’s health because when we invest in their health now, we will begin to see the benefits in years to come.

“When we invest in young people now, all the health issues we are addressing; teenage pregnancy, gender-based violence, Sexually Transmitted Infections, diabetes, and the others, there will be no need for the government to put so much money into curing these ailments,” she added.