RESUMO
Each of the more than dozen countries within the English-speaking Caribbean is now experimenting with developing both traditional and new approaches to reach youth in maternal and child health and family planning programmes. They focus on education, counselling and medical services for youth.
Assuntos
Serviços de Planejamento Familiar , Educação Sexual , População Urbana , Adolescente , Adulto , Criança , Participação da Comunidade , Anticoncepção/métodos , Feminino , Conhecimentos, Atitudes e Prática em Saúde , Humanos , Jamaica , Masculino , Atenção Primária à Saúde , Aconselhamento SexualRESUMO
PIP: This article examines the Duhaney Park Youth Project, which was established in 1985 in urban Kingston, Jamaica. Since then the project has provided extensive staff training, utilized supportive community participation, and expanded its range of activities to include peer counseling, female sports, skills training, and a weekly evening youth clinic. This article describes the basic precepts and features of the project, together with relevant characteristics of the young people attending the evening clinic. Over half of these young patients were seeking assistance for family planning or sexually transmitted diseases. During the 1st 9 months of clinic operations, there were an average of 22 patient visits per month; during the last quarter, this figure had tripled to 73 visits per month. 30% of all the patients made 2 or more visits. Many of the patients said that it was the 1st time they had visited a health center. 48% of acceptors selected oral contraceptives. Experience over the years has shown that vertical programming to reach adolescents and postadolescent young people has not been very successful. This project, 1 of the 1st such comprehensive youth programs in the Caribbean region and similar in orientation to "The Door" in New York City, is more comprehensive and offers a variety of services for youth. The program could prove to be a useful model, serving as a source of experience and fresh ideas for similar efforts in other countries.^ieng