Tema, Oct. 13, GNA – The Ghana Health Service is to rollout a new intervention dubbed ‘Peer Support Service Providers Initiative’ (PSSPI) with the aim of using adolescent peer health providers to reach out to their colleagues in their neighbourhood.
Madam Diana Bona, Greater Accra Regional Adolescent Health Focal Person disclosed this during a consultative meeting of stakeholders which formed part of the roadmap to implement the PSSPI.
The stakeholders included; adolescent, adolescent friendly health providers, nutritionists, traditional leaders, Ghana Education Service, Domestic Violence Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU), Department of Social Welfare and Community Development, religious organizations, media and assembly members among others.
The Ningo-Prampram District and Tema Metropolis are the two areas selected for the programme in the Greater Accra Region due to their large adolescent population.
The Tema Metropolis is expected to train a total of 105 adolescents and 24 peer health educators made up of 35 and eight per each of the three sub metros respectively.
Madam Bona said the initiative was aimed at selecting out of school adolescents who would receive requisite training and then be used as peer support of other adolescents within their vicinity.
She said peer influence during adolescent period was critical adding that there was a correlation between time spent with adolescents and its resultant positive or negative effects therefore the need to engage them and get them involved in the discharge of health services to them.
She said adolescent peer service providers would complement health service delivery and also contribute to the expansion of access to health service, and provide guidance to their peers.
The peer service providers, she said would use many methods to reach out to their peers through formal support groups which were often structured groups, informal groupings which could be in a form of focus group discussions, and taking advantage of activities that would have adolescents present for engagement.
She said among the criteria for recruitment was being a resident of the metropolis for at least a year, aged between 15 to 24, understand the language of the community, no criminal record, interest in social media, a team player, volunteering and having the potential for leadership, among others.
Madam Bona revealed that the adolescent peer service providers would receive training in adolescent development, advocacy, peer counselling, adolescent youth friendly service, STDs, and mental health among others.
Ms Sandra Owusu, an officer at the Nutritional Department of the Tema Metropolitan Health Directorate giving a presentation on the Girls Iron Folic Tablet (GIFT) noted that its implementation addressed more than six of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
Ms Owusu said it was also effective to solve anaemia related problems in adolescent girls who lost quantity of blood monthly and did not eat iron rich foods leading to anaemia.
Dr Sally Quartey, Tema Metropolitan Health Director urged participants to educate people on the various initiatives by the GHS especially the GIFT to encourage more girls to participate in taking the tablet weekly as scheduled.
The stakeholders said even though the iron folic acid supplementation was a good initiative, lack of intensified education made people to have some misconception about its aim.
They therefore asked health providers to conduct more sensitization on it especially for parents to understand the concept and encourage their girls to take it noting that there was the need to change the type of communication associated with it to project its benefits for the adolescent girl.
GNA