Govt certifies 51 health facilities as adolescent-friendly

KATHMANDU: A total of 51 health facilities in 20 districts have been certified as adolescent-friendly service (AFS) sites as of now by the Family Health Division (FHD) under the Ministry of Health.

AFS sites create a safe, supportive and protective environment for adolescents, whether they are single or married, ensuring their access to the information and services they need from trained health service providers in a non-judgmental manner maintaining privacy, respect and confidentiality.

Of the certified health centres — two in Province 1, four in Province 2, two in Province 3, one in Province 4, six in Province 5, and five in Province 7 — 49 are in government facilities and the remaining two in private clinics, according to FHD.

According to FHD, the health facilities were certified as adolescent-friendly through a joint monitoring system using the nine national standards mentioned in the Quality Improvement and Certification Tool for Adolescent-Friendly Service (AFS), endorsed by the Ministry of Health in 2015. Of them, 45 were certified with the support of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the remaining with other partners.

There are many other health facilities that are being assessed using the national standards together with pre-certification monitoring visits under the leadership of district health authorities who have already requested FHD to verify the score they come up with through a joint monitoring. In order to keep the momentum going, the joint monitoring system that is in place now should be continued, said Dilli Raman Adhikari, chief of the Family Welfare Section at FHD.

A new report by UNFPA on the certification of adolescent-friendly services in the existing health facilities and competency-based adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) training stresses the need for imparting life skills-based sexual and reproductive health education to young people. It further says that strengthening the current health management system is key to meeting the national standards.

According to the national standards, all health facilities, among other things, should have service providers - trained on ASRH - build a conducive environment that ensures adolescents’ access to information, counselling and services, as well as respect their sexual and reproductive rights.