In 1997 New Hampshire's Bureau of Maternal and Child Health constructed a funding source that would allow its Title X (Family Planning) delegate agencies to set-up adolescent only reproductive health clinics. To date, this initiative has assisted the start-up of ten teen clinics throughout the state of New Hampshire. The past year provided the first opportunity to evaluate the program and determine its effectiveness. This was done through a review and analysis of client visit record data and the completion of an extensive quality assurance process. The Grantee compared client visit record data from calendar year ‘95 to CY‘96 (January through September) to compare the number of teens being seen before and after program inception. This comparison revealed a 21.9 percent increase in the number of teens being served. An initiative at these specialized clinics to increase male teen involvement, titled M.O.R.E., has also been a success. In the first year of this project there was a 43% increase in the number of male teens served. The success of these teen clinics is in large part to the following: dedicated agency staff who are keenly aware of the needs of their community and are skilled in delivering and designing programs to meet these needs; confidentiality; low-cost; extensive community collaboration; teen involvement in all aspects of program planning and delivery including outreach, marketing, evaluation, and education (peer education); and aggressive outreach and marketing strategies carefully designed to reach the teens in the community.
Learning Objectives: Participants will gain knowledge about the components neccessary for developing successful adolescent reproductive health clincs. Participants will be able to evaluate their programs and assess their ability to construct successful adolescent only clinic settings. At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to: 1) Identify at least 3 essential components to a successful adolescent-only reproductive health clinic 2)Report to their communities the success of other adolescent-only reproductive health clinics 3)Learn about possible Federal and State funding sources available to fund adolescent reproductive health clinics.
Keywords: Access to Care, Adolescent Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: New Hampshire state funded adolescent reproductive health clinics.
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.