CONFIDENTIALITY IS KEY IN PROVIDING SRHR SERVICES – PPAG
Mr. Martin Anyoka, the Adolescent Girl Empowerment Programme Officer of the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) in the Upper East Region, has reiterated the need for confidentiality in the provision of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services (SRHs) to adolescents. He said that would help curtail teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases among the youth.
Mr. Anyoka said the unfriendly approach to health services delivery at any health facility and service provision point could be a deterrent to clients and scare the youth away from seeking information and services for quality of their sexual life. The Adolescent Girl Empowerment Programme Officer said this in response to the low patronage of SRH Services by young girls leading to increasing teenage pregnancy challenge in the region.
He said the attitude and unfriendly behavior of service providers was a contributory factor to the challenge and indicated that as part of PPAG’s effort to build confidence in adolescents to seek information and services, an innovation dubbed, “Know your Nurse, know your Client,” in being implemented, where adolescents were taken on a visit to the health facilities to promote SRH Services. It is also for them to familiarize themselves with service providers to know the services available to them. Such visits offer young people the opportunity to seek clarification on their sexuality. Mr. Anoka explained that the program had started to increase the interest of the youth and built their confidence.
The Adolescent Girl Empowerment Programme, he said, was also designed to help adolescent girls make informed decisions about their sexuality and their future, by breaking the silence on norms that affect them. Other interventions being implemented by PPAG are the provision of skill-based short-term training, to enable adolescent girls to earn income to take care of their needs instead of depending on men, projects on disability inclusion, maternal health and others.
