The teens who take drugs and those who remained without parental care are the most vulnerable as regards the access to youth-friendly health services. Most of the times, the teens from the risk group do not even know about the existence of such services. Contacted by IPN, the head of the Youth-Friendly Health Center “Neovita” Galina Leshko said that the problem of access to youth-friendly health services must be addressed at inter-sector and inter-disciplinary levels because otherwise the efforts made will not produce results.
“If the role of the education institutions is to form life habits, the health system plays the role of providing counseling in solving health problems. Currently, effort is made to develop youth-friendly health services that are in the process of extension and are to be created in every sector. We hope that during the next years the young people will have access to equitable services that would meet the development necessities and age particularities,” said Galina Leshko.
According to her, the specialists in the field are concerned about the young people’s limited access to sustainable programs on sexual education or life habits. In schools, these courses are optional. Only 10% of the teens attend them.
“A problem is that the existent services are not sufficiently confidential or adapted to the needs of the teens. At the same time, the youth-friendly health services are less accessible to adolescents from rural areas. The university curriculum does not yet include subjects about the development particularities of the teens, communication and counseling for them,” said the head of “Neovita” Center.
The first youth-friendly health services in Moldova appeared in April 2001, with the support of UNICEF Moldova and the Family Planning Association, within the Institute of Scientific Research in Mother and Child Health Protection.
