DOHA: Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has announced the beginning of the Adolescent Health Program early next month to target students in government schools between the ages of 10 and 18 years.
Community Medicine Consultant and Head of the School Health Department at PHCC, Dr Layla Al Dahnaim said that the program aims to promote the psychological, social and mental health of adolescents and contributes to the early detection of the problems and challenges that the adolescents are exposed to at home or with a family member or problems in the educational environment to help students cope with the health and psychological changes during the years of development of early adolescence.
Dr Al Dahnaim referred to the convention signed this year by PHCC and the Ministry of Education and Higher education to implement this program in public schools.
It will be implemented in several stages starting from the pilot phase, which starts early next month with six schools of different stages of study, where the program has a set of important essential elements such as addiction, hyperactivity, sexual health, depression and violence.
Dr Al Dahnaim explained that the program assists teachers, psychologists, social workers and nursing schools to alert early to any problem that the adolescent may be exposed to, and creates an opportunity to encourage teenagers to seek help and advice when they are exposed to any psychological, social or behavioural problem and also helps parents to communicate with the school if they become aware of any psychological challenges that students are exposed to.
In this context, a working group was formed for the adolescent health program in schools, where the team includes the director, director deputy, as well as the school counselor, nurses, psychologists and social workers to observe any signs of psychological or social problems and refer them to the school nurse who coordinates between the school administration, the students families and the school psychologist who conducts direct communication with the families and attend to their queries.
