National Adolescent Health Month™ (NAHM™)

Celebrate National Adolescent Health Month™ (NAHM™)!

National Adolescent Health Month (NAHM) is a time for adults from across the country to come together and support adolescents in our communities. During NAHM and all year long, OPA’s grant recipients, health care and human services providers, youth-serving professionals, and parents and caregivers connect youth to services and opportunities that build on their strengths and potential.

Join OPA in advancing the vision that all adolescents in the United States have the safety, support, and resources to thrive, be healthy, and have equitable opportunities. We can all come together to support individuals and communities working to create change that benefits young people!

Week 1: Ensure and expand access to health care, human services, and safe and supportive environments

All young people need and deserve to have safe and supportive spaces where they can feel physically, mentally, and emotionally safe. Environments like homes, schools, neighborhoods, community groups, peer groups, and family greatly impact young people’s health and well-being. Safe and supportive health care settings can provide young people with accessible and culturally relevant sexual and reproductive health care they need to make informed decisions about their health and well-being. Adolescents can feel the positive effects of safe and supportive environments now and into adulthood.

By making community resources available to adolescents, we can improve their access to health care and human services. Taking this step is an essential part of helping them grow into healthy adults. Expanding access to services requires collaboration across all levels of government—federal, state, tribal, local, and territorial—and youth-serving professionals.

Parents and caregivers, teachers, health care providers, social workers, and other professionals are among those who see adolescents most often. These adults can help build safety and support by organizing youth-friendly spaces and interacting with adolescents. Youth-serving professionals and health care providers can connect young people with sexual and reproductive health services and give young people accurate and culturally relevant health information. Parents and caregivers can help young people navigate the health care system and form healthy habits.

Week 2: Support and translate adolescent health research and improve health information and health literacy

Supporting, translating, and disseminating research and data on adolescent health and well-being is essential to advancing public health. Improving related policies, programs, and practices affects the entire research process, including funding, data collection, and disseminating and implementing research findings. Involving young people in research and data collection, translation, and dissemination supports innovation and accessibility and promotes youth engagement and agency.

Access to health information and improved health literacy can empower young people to make informed decisions, advocate for themselves, and navigate complicated health care and human services (including services like health education, counseling, social work, and more). It will also help the caring adults in their lives provide informed guidance and support. Improved health literacy is critical to helping young people build the skills to find, process, and evaluate the vast amount of health content online. 

While there is a lot of research on adolescents, there is still more to learn about their health, experiences, and the programs and supports that most benefit them in the near and long term. Youth-serving professionals, health care providers, and researchers can all work together to advance adolescent-focused research. Parents and caregivers can work directly with the young people in their lives to ensure they know how to find accurate health information. 

Week 3: Increase youth agency, youth engagement, and training and support for caring adults

Young people know what programs and services they need to support their health and well-being. Involving young people in creating these programs and policies builds their competence and leadership skills and supports self-determination. Increasing youth agency and engagement benefits young people by building their capacity to become independent adults. Supportive and caring adults are critical to helping young people advocate for themselves and make good decisions about their health and well-being.

Caring adults, such as family members, caregivers, health care professionals, school staff, and others working with young people, can take steps to engage youth. But these adults need support, too. With support, information, and training, caring adults are better equipped to understand and support young people.

All adults can support youth agency and engagement by actively listening to young people, centering their voices and lived experience, and involving them in program development. Adults can also work together to share resources and information that best support adolescents.

Week 4: Eliminate disparities to advance health equity and increase collaboration and coordination across systems

Adolescents have multiple and diverse needs and require different supports to be healthy. By reducing the burden of disease, injury, and violence, we allow adolescents to reach their fullest potential. Many young people experience health disparities that disproportionately affect their communities due to the systems and environments where they are born, grow, live, work, play, worship, and age. These social determinants of health include:

• Economic stability,
• Education access and quality,
• Health care access and quality,
• Neighborhood and built environment, and
• Social and community context.

We can promote health and well-being for all adolescents by addressing social drivers and meeting their diverse needs. It is also critical to increase coordination and collaboration within and across the systems serving young people. These systems can include pediatric settings, social service programs, and the child welfare system. Collaboration and coordination across settings and systems can maximize resources, reduce duplication of efforts, and promote quality and transparency. This could mean putting services in one location, streamlining application and referral systems, or sharing data and communicating across programs.

Everyone can play a part in improving systems to advance health equity. Health care and human services providers can work with youth-serving professionals to coordinate care across settings. Parents, caregivers, legal representatives, and youth can share their feedback so service providers and policy makers can see gaps in coordination.