Young people have lots of issues and questions that require answers; and majority of these issues revolve around sexual and reproductive health and rights. Providing youth friendly sexual and reproductive health services avails them access to reliable information that can guide them in overcoming challenges of adolescence.
Youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services are those services that attract young people, respond to their needs, and retain young clients for continuing care. Youth-friendly services are based on a comprehensive understanding of what young people in a given society or community want.
A major component of these services include peer education and counseling by trained personnel.
Interestingly, Young people face greater reproductive health challenges than adults, yet they are less willing and able to access reproductive health services because of lack of awareness on the availability of such services and the barriers posed by the service providers are being perceived as unwelcoming to young clients.
It is quite obvious that the consequences of poor reproductive health in adolescence have serious implications for the future as well as the present, thus clinical programs need to find practical ways to assess their current operations and take steps to ensure that they are “youth friendly”.
The Women’s Health and Action Research Centre’s reproductive health hospital (Abel Guobadia Specialist Hospital) is one of the hospitals taking the lead in rendering youth friendly services in Nigeria.
For further inquiries, please visit Abel Guobadia Specialist Hospital, Benin-Lagos KM 11, Benin-Lagos Express way, Igue-Iheya, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.