M.O.W.H. Launches National Adolescent Health Strategic Plan

Today, at Escuela Mexico in Corozal District, the Ministry of Health and Wellness launched a National Adolescent Health Strategic Plan. Now, an adolescent is defined as a child, ages ten to nineteen, and in Belize, that is about ninety-six thousand, six hundred and ninety-three persons, almost one-fourth of the entire population. In the development of this comprehensive framework, which spans 2019 to 2030, approximately four hundred adolescents were engaged to devise the plan. It looked at issues of priority including poverty, drugs, teenage pregnancy, abuse, mental health and more. Earlier today, the media spoke with Doctor Natalia Largaespada Beer about the strategic plan.

Natalia Largaespada Beer

Dr. Natalia Largaespada Beer, M.O.H.W.

“We have under the plan, three outcomes. The first one is to improve the access to services and have satisfied adolescents with the services. The second outcome speaks to reducing risk behaviours among adolescents and we know that the most important thing is to increase their access to information to help them make better decisions. And then the last have to do with environments that are safe and nurturing where adolescents grow. And now of this could be possible with only one organisation. It has to be concerted effort from all angles – government, non-government, UN agencies and the adolescents participating in the implementation of the plan.”