Panama has 101 health facilities throughout the country that provide health services for adolescents; where more than 280,000 adolescents have been impacted nationwide, since the 90s, through training, prevention and promotion talks with health services through friendly clinics, reported Sonia Trujillo, pediatrician of the Comprehensive Childhood and Adolescent Health section of the Ministry of Health.
Trujillo, indicated that they are provided with a care model seeking the physical and mental well-being of the adolescent.
“Regarding the friendly services for adolescent health, we have focused on issues such as pregnancy prevention and they are given the tools to have a healthy sexual reproductive health, in addition to knowing the methods of contraception and prevention of smoking and alcoholism,” he added. .
The doctor added that, in these clinics, different angles of the problem are addressed and, in addition to this, the issue of strong families is discussed and skills are taught to deal intelligently with adversities that may arise at some point in their lives. .
Trujillo stated that certain characteristics must be present at the moment, that the problem of the young person is addressed, such as the proper awareness of the personnel, who will be in charge of the adolescent, who knows how to address them, who knows their most common morbidities.
“What we do is give them guidance and then we do the appropriate supervision and verify that these quality standards for adolescent care are being met,” he added.
Parents of families are recommended to seek help on time, “we are a Health team prepared and sensitized to adolescent care; it is to act on time; it is not waiting for the consequences; For that we are prepared and training ourselves continuously and with quality”.
For interested parents, they can go to the nearest health center and see if they have the Friendly Service program; If they have it, they leave their information and then contact the father of the family so that they can take their children and integrate them into this care model.
The statements of the pediatrician Trujillo, were given in the framework of the seminar-workshop given for Health personnel, where they exchanged experiences in the daily treatment of adolescents and provided them with the tools to face the different adversities that arise in life.
