Connect
MJA
MJA

Improving adolescents’ access to primary health care

Lena A Sanci, Melissa S-L Kang and B Jane Ferguson
Med J Aust 2005; 183 (8): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2005.tb07106.x
Published online: 17 October 2005

We need to incorporate adolescent health needs into mainstream policy-making, to evaluate services and to collaborate across sectors

Over the past two decades, the barriers to health care access for adolescents have been extensively researched. This research was sparked by worrying trends of adolescents’ worsening mortality and morbidity, such that their health status was worse than that of their parents, and the observation that their health services, compared with those for other age groups, had not improved.1,2 Based on this research, the US Society for Adolescent Medicine has been issuing position statements on effective health care access for adolescents since the early 1990s. In Australia, several national and state initiatives propelled an adolescent health movement, not least in primary care.3 Divisions of General Practice had the scope and financial resources to address local needs, and some chose to run youth-friendly health access projects. Training in adolescent health for clinicians and other professionals emphasised the biopsychosocial model of care and had evidence of effectiveness.4


  • 1 Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC.
  • 2 Department of General Practice, University of Sydney at Westmead Hospital, Sydney, NSW.
  • 3 World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
  • 4 Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development


Correspondence: 

  • 1. Raphael D. Determinants of health of North-American adolescents: evolving definitions, recent findings, and proposed research agenda. J Adolesc Health 1996; 19: 6-16.
  • 2. Bennett D. Adolescent health care: the international dimension and its relevance to Australia. Fellowship Affairs 1991; March: 15-22.
  • 3. Mitchell P. Crisis intervention and primary care: Technical report volume 3. Evaluation of the National Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy 1995-99, Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2000. Available at: http://www.aifs.gov.au/ysp/yspevaluation/evalrep4.html (accessed Sep 2005).
  • 4. Sanci LA, Coffey CMM, Veit FCM, et.al. Evaluation of the effectiveness of an educational intervention for general practitioners in adolescent health care: randomised controlled trial. BMJ 2000; 320: 224-229.
  • 5. Kefford CH, Trevena LJ, Willcock SM. Breaking away from the medical model: perceptions of health and health care in suburban Sydney youth. Med J Aust 2005; 183: 418-421. <eMJA full text>
  • 6. Booth ML, Bernard D, Quine S, et al. Access to health care among Australian adolescents: young people’s perspectives and their socio-demographic distribution. J Adolesc Health 2004; 34: 97-103.
  • 7. World Health Organization. Adolescent friendly health services: an agenda for change. Geneva: WHO, 2002. WHO/FCH/CAH/02/14.
  • 8. Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health on behalf of participating organisations. Bridging the gaps: health care for adolescents. London: Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2003. Available at: http://www.rcpch.ac.uk/publications/recent_publications/Adol.pdf (accessed Sep 2005).
  • 9. Society for Adolescent Medicine. Access to health care for adolescents and young adults: position paper of the Society for Adolescent Medicine. J Adolesc Health 2004; 35: 342-344.
  • 10. Mathias K. Youth-specific primary health care — access, utilisation and health outcomes. A critical appraisal of the literature. New Zealand Health Technology Assessment Report 2002; 5(1).
  • 11. Successworks Pty Ltd. Evaluation of Clockwork Young People’s Health Service. Geelong, VIC: Department of Human Services, 1998.
  • 12. Kang M, Bernard D, Usherwood T, et al. Better practice in youth health: final report on the research study “Access to health care among young people in New South Wales: Phase 2”. Sydney: NSW Centre for the Advancement of Adolescent Health, Department of General Practice, Westmead Hospital, 2005.
  • 13. Kang M, Bernard D, Booth ML, et al. Access to primary health care for Australian young people: service provider perspectives. Br J Gen Pract 2003; 53: 947-952.
  • 14. Armstrong RM, Randall HM, Van Der Weyden MB. Leading Australian doctors and clinical researchers set new priorities. Med J Aust 2004; 181: 14-19. <MJA full text>
  • 15. Bearinger LH, Gephart J. Interdisciplinary education in adolescent health. J Paediatr Child Health 1993; 29: S10-S15.
  • 16. MindMatters Plus. What is the mind matters plus initiative? Available at: http://cms.curriculum.edu.au/mindmatters/plus/plus.htm (accessed Jul 2005).
  • 17. Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. beyondblue schools research initiative. Melbourne: RCH. Available at: http://www.rch.org.au/ahsep/research.cfm?doc_id=4578 (accessed Jul 2005).

Author

remove_circle_outline Delete Author
add_circle_outline Add Author

Comment
Do you have any competing interests to declare? *

I/we agree to assign copyright to the Medical Journal of Australia and agree to the Conditions of publication *
I/we agree to the Terms of use of the Medical Journal of Australia *
Email me when people comment on this article

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.