Quality Assessment Guidebook

A Guide to Assessing Health Services for Adolescent Clients

Paperback
March 2011
9789241598859
More details
  • Publisher
    World Health Organization
  • Published
    28th March 2011
  • ISBN 9789241598859
  • Language English
  • Pages 104 pp.
  • Size 8.5" x 11.75"
$24.00

In many places, adolescents find it difficult to obtain the sexual and reproductive health services, and the other health services, that they need. To address this, there are a growing number of initiatives in many places which aim to make it easier for adolescents to obtain the health services they need, by making health services "adolescent friendly". These initiatives are being undertaken in a variety of settings—hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, youth centers, educational institutions, work places, shopping centres, camps for refugees and internally displaced people, and on the street. Non-government organizations are in the forefront of these efforts, although in a growing number of countries, governments are rising to the challenge.

The Quality Assessment Guidebook contains a framework which organizes twenty selected characteristics of adolescent friendliness. WHO has also developed methods and tools to assess whether health services meet these standards of quality.

The guidebook is designed to assist national and district health managers, as well as managers and staff at health facilities, to assess the quality of their services for adolescents in relation to the list of adolescent-friendly characteristics. Such assessments—from the perspectives of adolescent users and those of providers—will enable them to identify where their services and systems are already "adolescent-friendly" and will suggest where and how improvements could be made.

World Health Organization

World Health Organization is a Specialized Agency of the United Nations, charged to act as the world's directing and coordinating authority on questions of human health. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries, and monitoring and assessing health trends.