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Action Plan
The aim of a health promotion plan is to reduce the number of teenage conceptions amongst young
girls in the age group 15‐17 by trying to raise their awareness on sexual health issues. This will be
done by offering teenagers more information in a convenient, friendly and familiar environment.
Therefore, the objective will be to set up an easy accessed drop in clinic in the area where young
people feel that can go especially after school or during their breaks with the aim to discuss
contraception and other sexual health issues in confidential without them being criticised about their
actions. Information will be given regarding sexual health, teenage pregnancy and its consequences.
It will be run by friendly, approachable, and non judgemental professionals always available to discuss
any raised issues with the teenagers in a non paternalistic way. Also, involvement of volunteers with
an interest in teenage pregnancy and sexual health in general will be beneficial and will be welcomed.
As Allen (2001) stated one of the strategies that have been produced by the UK government in order
to tackle teenage pregnancy was to improve the accessibility of contraceptive services to teenagers
and especially to young persons who were still at school. Additionally, Clements et al. (1998) found
that distance is an important factor that needs to be taken into consideration, as young people and
especially those who live in rural areas tend not to travel to a service. This fact has as a result
adolescents’ isolation and a reduced attendance of sexual health clinics. Although proximity to clinics
is a very important factor for young people who live in rural areas and affects their attendance at
clinics, anonymity is also an issue that is taken into consideration by teenagers and sometimes they
prefer to travel to more distant services in order to ensure that their identity will not be revealed
(Parkes et al. 2004).
However, the establishment of clinics that offer information and advice to young people has been
criticised as not effective due to the poor attendance of teenagers (Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists 1991).
As happens with all the health promotion plans, it is necessary to have funding approved before the
implementation of an action plan. Funding is the most crucial step for this health promotion plan
because as Andalo (2005) states funding is approved only when services are closely linked with
government’s targets.
Andalo (2005) suggests that the success of a strategy depends on the amount of money that will be
invested in order to meet the targets. However, budget holders when taking decisions regarding how
they will spend their budgets, tend to invest in areas that attract the public interest. Unfortunately,
sexual health and teenage pregnancy are not considered by the public as health issues of great
importance (Andalo 2005). Therefore, it is obvious that further development of sexual health clinics
depends mainly on the allocation of resources. As (Donym 2004) said resources can be found only
when sexual health services comply with statistics and performance targets that each government
sets.
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