Global Courant
Adolescents’ health and well-being play a critical role in their overall growth and development. However, the lack of comprehensive local data on adolescent health, particularly in less resourced settings, hampers efforts to promote healthy behaviors and policies for adolescents, especially those in schools.
To fill this gap and generate new data and information, the World Health Organization (WHO) with the support of the Botnar Foundation is implementing a project called “Empowering adolescents to lead change using health data” with the aim of generating health information for adolescents of students in cities around the world. four low- and middle-income countries, including Fez, Morocco; Jaipur, India; Saint Catherine Parish, Jamaica; and Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana.
This initiative used existing WHO tools such as the Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) to assess student health behaviors and protective factors, and the Global School Health Policies and Practices Survey (G-SHPPS) to assess school policies that students’ health.
In Ghana, this initiative, which is being implemented in partnership with the Ghana Health Service and the Ghana Education Service, has enabled young people in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolitan area to have a voice about their health needs and contribute to developing sustainable solutions to overcome health barriers.
“Before, my friends and I only discussed some of these challenges in secret,” said Samuel Quayson, a 15-year-old student at Nana Badu Bonso Junior High School in Takoradi. “I’m glad we’ve had the chance to speak it out for the first time through the surveys that have been conducted and now we’re being involved in discussions with decision makers.”
Findings from the studies conducted revealed significant mental health problems among adolescents, with a quarter of the students surveyed reporting having attempted suicide. The students also identified domestic violence, school bullying and cyberbullying as some of the challenges impacting their health and well-being.
Throughout the process, WHO provided financial and technical support to train 25 data collectors. WHO, in collaboration with UNESCO and the University of Bern, also organized a data-to-action workshop to engage stakeholders, including students, school principals and others, to leverage the findings to implement interventions for improved adolescent health outcomes.
School health authorities in the Western Region described the findings as important to ongoing efforts to improve adolescent health.
“Indeed, through this initiative, WHO has helped us not only appreciate the challenges, but also how we can work together to overcome them,” said Ruth Adu, the coordinator of the Western Regional School Health Education Program. -based youth health services across the country.
Dr. Joana Ansong, the Noncommunicable Disease and Risk Factors Officer at WHO Ghana, agreed, noting that the importance of this initiative transcends the boundaries of the schools surveyed.
“As WHO, we are interested in using the students’ information to work with partners to create, implement and then evaluate a package of interventions to improve adolescent health outcomes,” she stated.
As Victoria Celine Ntem, a 13-year-old student at Takoradi Presbyterian Junior High School, is concerned about the study’s findings, she is glad she discussed it with decision-makers and will do her part to encourage healthy behavior among her peers. to improve .
“I knew some of these challenges, but findings about suicide attempts and mental health really scare me,” she said. “While our teachers and parents have committed to addressing them, I will be talking to my friends about it so we can help each other overcome these challenges.”
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO), Ghana.
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