KHPT reviews an international toolkit on adolescents and mental health.

July 15, 2021


KHPT was invited to review an international toolkit for the World Health Organization (WHO, Geneva) considering their work and expertise on adolescent health. The toolkit aims to promote healthy psychological development of adolescents across the world and contains four strategies (to address policies and programmes; supportive environments; caregivers and individual adolescent development) and two implementation approaches (multisectoral collaboration and monitoring and evaluation). Since the toolkit is addressed at an international audience, KHPT was invited to review the toolkit in the context of its appropriateness and usefulness for low and middle-income countries. KHPT reviewed all the strategies and implementation approaches to address the following questions:

*             Given the intended audience, is the text clear to read/understand?

*             Are the statements made technically sound? If not, are there gaps or errors?

*             Are the statements made adequately backed up with credible references?

*             Are the recommended actions, feasible in a low and middle-income country?

*             Are sexual and reproductive health considerations – where appropriate – taken on board?

KHPT drew on its vast experience in implementing adolescent empowerment programmes, working with children and adolescents in the HIV context, as well as drawing on their experience with the adolescent vulnerability mapping study. The strategies and approaches were considered in the light of these experiences and the implications for work with marginalized families and communities that we work with. KHPT’s contribution has also been to strengthen the document by strongly bringing focus to structural and social contexts and determinants of adolescent mental health, and advocate for stronger ecologically sound approaches to adolescent mental health. The tool published is available here.

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