NCJ Number
149463
Date Published
1992
Length
30 pages
Annotation
The Ounce of Prevention Toward Teen Health (TTH) centers are organized on the premise that comprehensive health care is crucial to helping disadvantaged adolescents overcome the consequences of their environment.
Abstract
The three primary goals of the centers are to improve the delivery of health care services to adolescents within underserved communities, improve the birth outcomes of pregnant adolescents and help them stay in school, and help students prevent unwanted pregnancies through abstinence counseling and family planning. Teenagers require comprehensive health services and need consistent care from an adult they can trust; each student visit to a health center provides an opportunity for the staff to educate young people about caring for themselves and to address issues including poverty, violence, low self-esteem, racism, limited future options, and an unsafe environment. An overview of the TTH centers discusses physician coverage, available services, parental involvement and confidentiality, staffing, and the procedures followed when a student visits the center. This booklet also describes the operation of TTH centers at three high schools in Chicago.