Who (other than parents) will help a teenager?

In a regular children’s clinic, adolescents are treated for colds, gastritis, and headaches. Adolescents are embarrassed to talk to a doctor who has treated since childhood about the prevention of sexually transmitted infections or unwanted pregnancies. And they don’t risk going to the gynecologist – they will scream, tell their mother, they won’t really explain anything. How to be?

From time to time, in different audiences of professionals working with adolescents, we ask how confident they are in the ability to protect their growing children from all and sundry risks – inevitable for any teenager. At best, there are one or two positive answers. We do not know, we do not know how, we ourselves are not trained to prepare our children for adulthood. The average parent, according to psychologists, spends 8 minutes a day talking to their own child. These 8 minutes include questions about studying, whether the garbage has been taken out, whether the dishes have been washed. Meanwhile, every day our children are tormented by a variety of issues, they find themselves in difficult situations, it is painful and difficult for them … At the age of 14–16, when it seems that the whole world is against you, when previously unknown problems, anxieties, doubts pile up, and next to there is no one who would like to trust, to speak out, with whom one could consult – where to go? To the teachers? But the difficulties of puberty worry them much less than the issues of academic performance. To parents? It’s not easy to say out loud what worries you. To the doctors? But to what? To a children’s clinic? And what is there: blushing in anticipation of a doctor’s appointment next to parents cradling their babies? To an antenatal clinic, where you can inadvertently run into your own mother, neighbor, teacher? In a dermatovenerological dispensary or an AIDS center? From one name it becomes uncomfortable. The best thing is if there is a youth-friendly clinic nearby.

Adolescents are no longer children, but not yet adults. They need a special approach based on the principles of accessibility, voluntariness, benevolence and trust. It is on these principles that the work of specialized youth clinics and health centers is based. At the Youth Friendly Clinic (YFC), adolescents and young people receive age-appropriate medical, psychological and social care. What distinguishes it from other KDM institutions is the presence of staff specially trained to work with young people, who treats them kindly, tactfully, respectfully and impartially, enjoys confidence, and strictly observes confidentiality. Any teenager can voluntarily, independently, without being accompanied by their parents, apply to the CDM and receive free medical assistance or advice, which makes the youth clinic accessible. The legislation of the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia gives minors the right to independently seek medical care from the age of 14–16. Thus, in Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, adolescents can do this from the age of 14, in Russia – from the age of 15, in the Republic of Belarus and Kazakhstan – from the age of 16.

How does KDM work?

In a friendly clinic, assistance is provided to adolescents through a joint search with a specialist for solutions to certain problems. The clinic specialist will not judge the teenager and will accept him as he is. A welcoming, friendly atmosphere attracts teenagers and helps to create the much-needed trusting relationship with specialists.

And, importantly, in one clinic you can consult a psychologist and a social worker, visit a dermatovenereologist, gynecologist, urologist, and get tested for STIs. For many teenagers, the first visit to such specialists causes fear and anxiety. The psychologist’s task is to remove this anxiety in the conversation preceding the visit to the gynecologist’s or andrologist’s office, to aim at a positive attitude towards preventive examinations and the youth clinic as a whole. Such an integrated approach to providing assistance is convenient for adolescents and gives the best result.

Many teenagers come to the KDM when they are healthy in order to talk with a psychologist, get information about reproductive health and contraception. A psychologist helps a teenager to understand himself, and trainings teach how to avoid conflicts with others, with friends, parents, how to improve relationships with girls (boys) and how to avoid bad habits. A dermatologist advises on how to avoid STIs, and an obstetrician-gynecologist advises on how to choose an effective contraceptive and prevent unwanted pregnancy. Those teenagers who follow the recommendations of specialists, as a rule, avoid serious problems.

Adolescent-friendly centers are usually part of a medical facility. Geographically, they can be located in a children’s or adult polyclinic, in a antenatal clinic or a skin and venereal clinic, an AIDS center or a student clinic. Sometimes they work on the basis of social services, where doctors are invited from different medical institutions. But at the same time, each KDM has a separate entrance, a room for teenagers to wait and communicate, and, if space permits, a room for group trainings and preventive classes.

My health is in my hands

Such classes are conducted not only by adult specialists, but also by specially trained young people – volunteers. Communication “on an equal footing” takes place outside the walls of the KDM at school, in a summer camp. Volunteers of the clinics take an active part in the preparation and holding of various events, help in distributing leaflets with the contact details of the CDM. The success of clinics depends to a large extent on the initiative and activity of young volunteers who work as “ambassadors” of a healthy lifestyle and spread knowledge among their peers.

Evaluating the work of youth centers and clinics, adolescents put the friendliness of the staff, confidentiality and professional skills of the staff in the first place. The titles, degrees and regalia of a doctor for a teenager have absolutely no meaning. It is important for him how the specialist talks to him and how much he understands. According to young people, YMC is the only place where you can calmly talk to a reproductive health professional and get reliable information. Here, adolescents and their problems are treated with respect and understanding, confidentiality and medical secrecy are maintained.

Youth clinic and parents

Although KDM is intended for independent visits by teenagers and is considered the territory of youth, its doors are open to parents. An important principle of the CCM is trust, which means the doctor’s trust in adolescents, the adolescent’s trust in the doctor, and the parents’ trust in the youth clinic and their child. In order to strengthen this trust, many CDM consult parents, both separately from the children and jointly, which allows solving many serious problems not only of a medical, but also of a moral, psychological and legal nature.

For example, in the youth clinic of Bratsk “Ariadna” round tables are held for mothers and their growing up daughters. This helps parents decide to discuss reproductive health issues with girls. “Help, my child is growing up!”, “Health of the future mother” – these are topics that are of great interest to both girls and their mothers. They act out different situations, learn to talk to each other. For a very long time, they did not dare to come to the youth clinic of the father together with his sons, but today this has already become a common practice.

On the basis of some KDM “clubs of young mothers” have been created. Communication in youth clinics allows them to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills of caring for a child, feel psychological support, get to know and make friends with each other, and improve legal literacy.

A special feature of the KDM is the work on the upbringing of responsible parenthood. It is carried out not through exhortations and appeals, but through special trainings and discussions. After the boy learned how to swaddle the doll with difficulty, he will look at sexual relations with his underage girlfriend with completely different eyes.

Adolescents who receive medical, psychological, and health information at youth clinics move more safely through growing up. Parents can be calm about the health of their children, knowing that they will receive all the necessary assistance and information from competent specialists.