Adolescent Sexual Health

Adolescents and young people often face inequalities and critical gaps in their access to Sexual and reproductive health information and services, which has now been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This can have devastating lifelong consequences, including early marriage, chronic health conditions and severe mental health issues and suicide. Identification of barriers and facilitators to access for adolescents to Sexual and reproductive health information and services is crucial so that services can be appropriately designed to meet the needs of adolescents in the future. Our work in this area currently focuses on exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to services from both the service utilizers (the adolescents themselves) as well as from the service providers and policy makers. This will provide information on drivers of the collapse in services during the current pandemic, and facilitate the design of more resilient, user-oriented services for future generations.