Teenagers educating teenagers about reproductive health and their rights to confidential care.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the efforts of the Teen Health Initiative (THI) to meet the needs of teenagers for an accurate understanding of their rights to health care in New York. In particular, THI makes the state's laws understandable and explains the legal rights of minors to health care. In addition to the extensive training for professionals who work with adolescents, THI runs a peer education program. The program provides teenagers the opportunity to discuss their rights to confidential health care and gives them the tools to present that information to other adolescents around the state. An important aspect of the THI program is that it focuses on teenagers educating teenagers. Its workshop covers areas of health care to which minors can give informed consent and that they can receive confidentiality such as mental health care, drug and alcohol counseling, as well as areas of reproductive health such as birth control, pregnancy testing, prenatal care and counseling, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS testing and treatment, and abortion. The group believes that, when fully educated and treated respectfully, most teenagers are willing and able to make responsible choices about their health and their lives.