June 2013

        

Istanbul  was the chosen location for the 10^th world congress of the International Association of Adolescent Health , the last one having been held 4 years ago in Malaysia.

The congress was held over a lively, hectic four days  with presentations, workshops, symposia and posters presented in three parallel streams: Public Health; Clinical ; Sexual and Reproductive and a Professional Development Stream. The day’s programme started at 0830 and ran through until 18.00 , often featuring lunch time activities in addition.

 Nicola Gray and myself were fortunate to be able to attend the meeting, supported by the RCGP Adolescent Health Group . We contributed to a symposium which introduced the audience to the ground breaking work of   AYPH and Youth Access : ‘GP Champions’ and other initiatives by community based youth friendly primary care practitioners, including pharmacy , podiatry and optometry. 

For myself, the key messages were

• ·        adolescence is the foundation for future health

• ·        investing in the second decade will maintain the health gains achieved in the first decade

• ·    health for youth requires a co-ordinated and holistic response extending  beyond ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’

• ·         education in undergraduate programmes  and CPD  for practitioners is universally lacking  

• ·         youth-friendly   practitioners need to advocate locally, nationally and internationally

The conference was a convivial experience with adolescent health practitioners almost universally a warm and welcoming crowd.

The highlight of the programme was a presentation by the group of young people who had been meeting since the start of the conference. Their project was to produce position statements summarizing their debates on the 7 areas of the HEADSSS acronym- a framework for discussion in the consultation.

H-Home

E- Education

A-Activities

D- Drugs

S-Safety

S- Suicide

S- Sexual health

Please see the facebook link which has all the position statements posted and more!

Check out

 www.facebook.com/youthforumIAAH2013

Nicola and I were very proud of our 2 UK reps : Collette & Ellen- you were great !

That's all from me folks

with best wishes

Jane Roberts