Oah/cdc's integrating services, programs, and strategies through a community-wide initiative: Increasing access to and utilization of contraceptive and reproductive health care services among adolescents through the implementation of health care delivery system and contraceptive and reproductive health best practices

Despite recent declines, U.S. teen birth rates remain higher than rates in other industrialized nations and racial/ethnic disparities persist. Barriers at the health systems-level – including cost, concerns about confidentiality, and lack of staff training– may impede adolescent access to quality reproductive health services that have the potential to reduce teen pregnancy rates. One way to address these barriers is through the implementation of adolescent-specific clinical “best practices” that allow for the delivery of culturally-competent, evidence-based reproductive health services. While clinicians may be aware of practices that can improve their efforts to more efficiently serve adolescent clients, they can experience a number of barriers to quality implementation, including out-of-date guidelines; a lack of evidence-informed tools to measure consistent, quality implementation; and a lack of concrete strategies to combat challenges that arise during implementation in the real-world clinical setting. This presentation focuses on implementation of clinical best practices in the context of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention /Office of Adolescent Health Teen Pregnancy Prevention Project, a community-wide demonstration project to reduce rates of teen pregnancy and births in communities with the highest rates, focusing on African American and Latino/Hispanic youth aged 15–19 years. Drawing from their experiences working on this project, the presenters will provide an overview of best practices for addressing the reproductive health of adolescents in a variety of clinical settings, corresponding tools to ensure the consistent and quality implementation of said best practices, and strategies to address potential challenges or barriers to effective best practice implementation.