THE Department of Health organised a central-level coordination meeting at Nay Pyi Taw on August 7 to finalise the five-year National Strategic Plan on Adolescent Health and Development (2008-2012), said a senior official from the department.

Dr Aung Tun, the deputy director of the department, said the meeting was attended by senior officials and adolescent experts from the World Health Organisation, and officials and experts in adolescent issues in Myanmar.

He said the aims of the plan, which has been in the planning stages since 2003, are to reduce common problems faced by adolescents and promote concrete collaboration among organisations in tackling adolescent-related issues under a strategy that would prevent processes from overlapping.

“The main problems challenging adolescents in the country are reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, anaemia in adolescent women, smoking, use of alcohol and tobacco products and various kinds of injuries,” he said.

Dr Aung Tun, who is also the project manager of the School and Youth Health Project under the Department of Health, said the plan will create an environment for adolescents in which they can have easy access to friendly health services.

“They can take part in discussions about anything they want to know about health and also have access to treatment,” he said. “Adolescents face some difficulties in discussing their feelings at health centres, which mostly focus on helping pregnant women and children.”

Dr Aung Tun said students are provided with life-skills training at school but there was a need to develop programs for adolescents who have finished high school and for out-of-school children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 24.

“We also need to provide them with health knowledge,” he said, adding that educational books for out-of-school adolescents have been arranged but it was still necessary to consider how to use them effectively.

He said guidelines have also been arranged to help health staff provide health services for adolescents.

Dr Aung Tun said the finalised plan will be launched next year as a pilot project in Nay Pyi Taw and the capital townships of all states and divisions.