For those new to this topic or those wanting references to research and programs, go to the page offering background information.
In November 2003, YouthNet convened a meeting of global experts working in the field of youth-friendly services. The presentations and discussions provided the basis for this compilation of tools. Several resources include multiple sections that fall into more than one of the categories below, so segments of the overall tool are included in different sections.
YouthNet considers this guide a work in progress and welcomes your input. Resources addressing utilization are needed, including descriptions of successfully implemented YFS programs, replication/scaling-up, and sustainability. We welcome any suggestions for possible additions to this guide.
1. Adolescent-Friendly Health Services. An Agenda for Change
2. Making Reproductive Health Services Youth Friendly
3. Applying Social Franchising Techniques to Youth Reproductive Health/HIV Services
4. Clinic Assessment of Youth-Friendly Services. A Tool for Assessing and Improving Reproductive Health Services of Youth
5. A Rapid Assessment of Youth-Friendly Reproductive Health Services
6. Youth-Friendly Pharmacy Program Implementation Kit CD-ROM (Assessment)
7. Reproductive Health Services for Adolescents. Comprehensive Reproductive Health and Family Planning Training Curriculum 16.
8. Youth-Friendly Services: A Manual for Service Providers
9. The WHO Orientation Programme on Adolescent Health for Health-Care Providers
10. Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Training Manual for Program Managers
11. Youth-Friendly Pharmacy Program Implementation Kit CD-ROM (Curricula)
12. Reproductive Health of Young Adults Training Module
13. Meeting the Needs of Young Clients: A Guide to Providing Reproductive Health Services to Adolescents
14. Adolescent Contraceptive Counseling Cue Cards
15. Adolescent-Friendly Health Services. An impact Model to Evaluate their Effectiveness and Cost
16. Youth-Friendly Pharmacy Program Implementation Kit
CD-ROM (Evaluation)
1. Adolescent Friendly Health Services. An Agenda for Change (World Health Organization, 2003).
Intended for policy-makers and program managers in both developed and developing countries, this 44-page document makes a compelling case for concerted action to improve the quality of health services to adolescents. It provides rationale for improving health services for adolescents, summarizes common health problems adolescents face, offers overview of health services adolescents need, and discusses what makes services more adolescent-friendly. It draws on case studies from around the world to show how non-governmental organizations and government bodies have improved adolescent health services with limited financial resources. It highlights the critical role that adolescents themselves can play, in conjunction with committed adults, to contribute to their own health and well-being.
2. Making Reproductive Health Services Youth Friendly (FOCUS on Young Adults/Pathfinder, 1999) (PDF, 280K).
This overview of the issue provides a description of the dimensions of the challenge of providing youth-friendly services, suggests characteristics of youth-friendly services, program efforts to implement such services, and strategies and actions that organizations can take to make overcome barriers. The 43-page summary, with more than 100 references, has provided a good starting point for many programs new to this topic. It includes one of the first list of characteristics of youth-friendly services, a list that has been adapted by many others.
3. Applying Social Franchising Techniques to Youth Reproductive Health/HIV Services, Youth Issues Paper 2 (YouthNet/Family Health International, 2003) (PDF, 472K).
This 32-page working paper analyzes what role social franchising techniques might have in expanding youth reproductive health/HIV services, with an emphasis on making these services more youth-friendly. It reviews the conceptual thinking and research findings on social franchising techniques, which uses commercial franchising techniques to increase access to and use of socially beneficial services, focusing on youth services. It applies critical analysis to four case studies using social franchising techniques for youth, including how friendly the services were to youth. Lessons learned, observations, and conclusions provide insights for those considering working with the private sector to develop youth-friendly services.
4. Clinic Assessment of Youth Friendly Services. A Tool for Assessing and Improving Reproductive Health Services for Youth (Pathfinder, 2002) (PDF, 3.5MB).
This hands-on, 21-page tool is designed for program personnel actually working with a project to assess and improve youth services. Staff can record data covering the general background information, client volume and range of services provided, schedule of available services by each day and types of services, and personnel and supervision details. It includes sections where staff can record information on 12 youth-friendly characteristics, with an explanation of each.
5. A Rapid Assessment of Youth Friendly Reproductive Health Services. Technical Guidance Series No. 4 (Pathfinder, 2003).
This 12-page paper outlines how to use the tool listed above, Clinic Assessment of Youth Friendly Services. It includes short summaries of youth-friendly services and describes how the tool can be used in various situations. It includes lessons learned from using the tool in four countries of the African Youth Alliance (Botswana, Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda).
6. Youth-Friendly Pharmacy Program Implementation Kit CD-ROM (PATH, 2003)
This comprehensive document provides guidelines, ideas, and prototype materials for designing and implementing a pharmacy capacity-strengthening project on youth and reproductive health issues. The kit is intended to guide program managers in the development of a pharmacy training initiative and can be adapted as needed to ensure sustainability in a variety of environments. It focuses on reaching youth with reproductive health information related to unprotected intercourse, such as pregnancy prevention with emergency contraception, ongoing contraceptive method counseling and provision, and sexually transmitted infection risk assessment and referral. Four main components of the kit are: guidelines for implementation of a youth-friendly reproductive health training program for pharmacy staff, implementation tools, including a training curriculum, prototype evaluation instruments, and samples of printed materials/job aids.
For other sections of the full 250-page kit, see listings under "Provider Training Curricula" and "Evaluation." A CD-ROM of the kit is available.
7. Reproductive Health Services for Adolescents. Comprehensive Reproductive Health and Family Planning Training Curriculum 16 (Pathfinder, 2002).
This module explains the necessity of special training for adolescent reproductive health. It includes sections to sensitize providers to the needs of adolescents and to prepare them to offer reproductive health services so that they are youth-friendly. The module puts particular emphasis on dual protection against STI/HIV and pregnancy, safer sex, counseling, providing care to the pregnant adolescent, and dealing with issues of gender, sexual abuse, and sexual orientation.
Part 1. Introductory Pages, Participant Handouts (133 pages) (PDF, 608K)
Part 2. Content Units 1-8 (47 pages) (PDF, 479K)
Part 3. Content Units 9-13, Bibliography (42 pages) (PDF, 564K)
8. Youth-Friendly Services: A Manual for Service Providers (EngenderHealth, 2002).
This comprehensive curricula addresses provider and site bias toward serving youth, intending to sensitize all staff at a health care facility on the provision of youth-friendly services. All training activities can be adapted and tailored to address the participants' specific needs, depending on their role at the clinic. The training covers such topics as service provider values, adolescent development (psychosocial, physical, and sexual development), sexual and reproductive health issues including contraception and STIs/HIV, and effective communication and counseling skills. It also talks about techniques for creating youth-friendly services called COPE (client-oriented, provider efficient), which enables staff to assess areas for improvement, identify potential solutions, and carry out recommended steps. It includes directions and guidelines for implementing COPE.
As shown on the link to the EngenderHealth Web site, you can download either the entire curriculum or segments in smaller PDFs: information for the trainer, introductory activities, service provider values, adolescent development, youth sexual and reproductive health, communication with youth, creating youth-friendly services, and closing activities.
9. The WHO Orientation Programme on Adolescent Health for Health-Care Providers (World Health Organization, 2003).
This comprehensive program for providers contains a planning and preparation section and nine training modules covering the meaning of adolescence, adolescent sexual and reproductive health, adolescent-friendly health services, sexually transmitted infections in adolescents, care of adolescent pregnancy and childbirth, unsafe abortion in adolescents, pregnancy prevention, and other topics. Some modules have multiple sessions. A companion booklet contains handouts to use in the sessions. Only selected modules are available online, but the entire module can be ordered on a CD ROM or in printed form.
10. Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health: A Training Manual for Program Managers (Catalyst Consortium, CEDPA, PROFAMILIA/Colombia, 2003)
Designed to educate program managers to better respond to the sexual and reproductive health needs of adolescents, this 200-page manual emphasizes four cross-cutting themes: gender, human rights, youth-adult partnerships, and sustainability throughout the modules. It provides comprehensive training for providers on youth perspectives and needs, behavior change issues, life skills, youth-friendly services, monitoring and evaluation, and more. The manual is based on training processes directed by PROFAMILIA/Colombia over the past decade.
English (PDF, 4.8MB)
Spanish (PDF, 4.6MB)
11. Youth-Friendly Pharmacy Program Implementation Kit CD-ROM (PATH, 2004).
The comprehensive kit, summarized above under "Assessment and Implementation Tools," includes the only training curriculum for pharmacy personnel available. It has a particularly strong section on emergency contraception, as well as ongoing contraception methods. Available on-line in three segments:
Introduction, Notes to Trainer, Units on Adolescent Reproductive Health, Customer Relations Skills, and Emergency Contraception with job aids and background handouts (103 pages) (PDF, 349K)
Contraceptive Methods for Ongoing Use (curriculum, job aids, and resource booklet, 48 pages) (PDF, 950K)
Management of Sexually Transmitted Infections (curriculum, handouts, aids, 43 pages) (PDF, 204K)
12. Reproductive Health of Young Adults Training Module (Family Health International, 2003).
This Web-based training module is designed to increase the awareness and understanding of the reproductive health needs of young adults among policy-makers, program directors, program planners, and health care providers. The module has four sections: 1) background information, including risks and consequences useful for policy-makers or program directors; 2) information and services young adults need, including how to make services more accessible; 3) clinical information on contraceptive options for youth, especially useful for providers; and 4) issues regarding STI prevention and treatment, including HIV as an urgent issue for youth. The modules can be used either as an interactive self-study program or as a participatory, group training experience. The self-study program includes an interactive test, which allows a scoring system on knowledge gained through the module. The presenter tools section contains print and projection tools, such as color slides for online presentation, slides for overhead projection, PowerPoint slideshow (95 slides), presenter's notes (72 pages), objectives, handouts, summary fact sheets and evaluation.
13. Meeting the Needs of Young Clients: A Guide to Providing Reproductive Health Services to Adolescents (Family Health International, 2000).
This desk-reference sized handbook is designed to help service providers and health workers to strengthen the reproductive health care and services offered to adolescents. It focuses on prevention of unplanned pregnancies and prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. Health workers, program managers, and health educators can also use it as a tool for designing, improving, and implementing adolescent health programs. Section 1 of the 107-page guide addresses technical issues, such as barriers to good reproductive health care, pregnancy prevention, and prevention of STIs and HIV. Section 2 addresses service delivery issues with an emphasis on counseling, strategies to make services more youth-friendly, and importance of building a referral network. It includes reminder questions for providers, role-plays to practice with youth, and easy-to-use charts on contraceptive methods, including when to start various methods after birth and abortion, and on issues concerning STIs.
14. Adolescent Contraceptive Counseling Cue Cards (Pathfinder, 2003).
These colorful and user-friendly job aids for providers are designed to offer helpful information and tips specific to the reproductive health needs of youth. Each of the eight two-sided cards covers a contraceptive method, from male condoms and IUDs to injectable contraceptives and Lactational Amenorrhea (LAM).
15. Adolescent Friendly Health Services: An Impact Model to Evaluate Their Effectiveness and Cost (World Health Organization, 2002) (PDF, 308K).
To help programs formulate appropriate questions and establish rationale for evaluation and systematic appraisal of health services, WHO offers a framework/model to consider. The 33-page document discusses selecting an appropriate package of services, establishing a network of service providers, determining a delivery model, improving the quality of health services provision, and creating a demand for adolescent services. It addresses improved health outcomes as one of the measures of impact and emphasizes the importance of building evaluation and cost issues into programs at the point of introduction of youth-friendly services.
16. Youth-Friendly Pharmacy Program Implementation Kit CD-ROM (PATH, 2004).
The comprehensive kit, summarized above under "Assessment and Implementation Tools," includes evaluation tools.
Evaluation Tools and other prototype materials (50 pages) (PDF, 1.21MB)
