Health clinics, counsellors address adolescent problems

SHILLONG: Health clinics under the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) are addressing the needs of adolescents comprehensively and reaching out to them in their own environment, schools and communities.
The state has 122 adolescent-friendly health clinics by the name of Friends’ Corner and 21 counsellors are trained and posted in nine district headquarters.
With the coming of RKSK, more clinics have been established and adolescent health counsellors are posted beyond district hospitals.
The counsellors are posted in 12 community health centres and more than 150 medical officers and 500 auxiliary nurse midwives and health educators have been trained for providing services.
An average of five visits per month was made by each counsellor, besides services at Friends’ Corner at designated time.
RKSK campaign was launched on January 7, 2014, in New Delhi and Meghalaya is among the first states to adopt the programme. A state-level workshop was then held on February 28, 2014.
The adolescent-friendly health clinics have been initiated under the Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health programme.
It is also learnt that in Meghalaya, 46.5 per cent adolescent girls and about 42 per cent adolescent boys are anaemic.
To combat nutritional anaemia, the weekly iron folic supplementation programme is another key intervention implemented in all government schools in the state.
Approximately 7,000 nodal teachers across 11 districts are facilitating the programme.
In Meghalaya, more than 4,000 peer educators have been selected across 1,200 villages in seven districts having equal representation of both boys and girls under the peer educator programme.
Peer educators act as a bridge between the community and adolescent clinics.