I completed my field studies with the Ghana Health Service (GHS). In July 2008, the Ghanaian Minister of Health declared maternal mortality a national emergency and launched a 2 day national consultative meeting that brought together stakeholders from different sectors to develop a comprehensive approach to reducing the maternal mortality ratio in Ghana. One of the recommendations was to refocus attention and resources on adolescent sexual and reproductive health. As the agency in charge of implementing public health programs in Ghana, GHS oversees an Adolescent Health and Development Program (ADHD). In 2000, ADHD created Adolescent Health Corners (AHCs), “adolescent friendly” health centers that are integrated into existing health facilities. The AHCs are staffed with public health nurses and peer advisors who are trained by ADHD to provide confidential services including family planning counseling and referrals for clinical services such as post abortion care. They also house Information, Education and Change (IE&C) materials that promote adolescent sexual and reproductive health. One barrier that ADHD sought to address during my field study was that health promotion materials differed from site to site. ADHD sought to standardize the delivery of service at all AHCs. In order to achieve this goal, all materials (for adolescents and for service providers) needed to be age-appropriate uniform and pre-tested to involve youth in the design and implementation of services.

From July 7, 2008 to September 12, 2008, I worked with the Adolescent Health and Development Program to develop and pre-test IE&C materials for the Adolescent Health Corners. The materials provided information ranging from abortion laws to family planning options to performing testicular self exams. Since the AHCs stress behavior change through counseling, we also revised an existing Adolescent Health Manual used to train service providers to include a chapter on counseling adolescents. The manual will be used to train public health nurses and peer educators. Finally, as a preparation for nation wide monitoring and evaluation, I visited three AHCs in the Greater Accra area to monitor and observe the types of resources available, the average caseload, and the number of staff present in order to write the proposal requesting the funding and personnel needed to perform monitoring visits in October, 2008.

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