3.
Awareness
and Accessibility to Basic Health Care Services and Youth Involvement towards a
Healthy Lifestyle
Access to health care services is a vital
component in forming a productive generation. The youth’s health is a paramount
public issue that requires the attention of the not only the local government
unit but all stakeholders in the community, especially the family. The
government plays a key role in facilitating the enhancement of the supply-side
of the equation, which means greater infrastructure investments, incentives for
medical practitioners, access to cheap medicine, health insurance coverage and
research and development. The community also should also act as a facilitator for preventive care
as well as awareness on leading a healthy lifestyle. Health also touches on
very controversial issues such as HIV – AIDS and teenage pregnancy. These
issues are defining our generation thus it should be given priority by the
government.
The Department of Health report on
adolescent and youth health states that: Non-communicable
diseases account for more than 40% of the deaths in young people (10-24
years old) and injuries are the causes of death in almost one third of people
in this age group. Assault and transport accidents are the leading causes of
mortality among young people with a mortality rate of 9.7 and 5.8 deaths per
100,000 populations, respectively (Philippine Health Statistics, 2003). Other
significant causes of death among the 10-24 years old Filipinos include
complications related to pregnancy, labor and puerperium; epilepsy; chronic
rheumatic heart disease; intentional self harm; and accidental drowning and
submersion (Philippine Health Statistics, 2003).Of the 1.67 M live births
registered in 2003, 35.7% (596, 076 LB) were by women £24 years old. Teenage
pregnancy accounted for 8% of all births (National Demographic Health Survey,
2003). Of the 1,798 maternal deaths registered for the same year, 22.3% were
women £24 years old. The proportion of malnutrition among those 11 – 19 years
of age (underweight and overweight) were noted to increase from 1993 to 2003
(FNRI Survey 1993, 1998 and 2003).About 4% of Filipinos 10 – 24 years of age
have some form of disability. The most common of this are speaking and hearing
disabilities.
With these insights, the Youth leaders
surfaced the following policy agenda:
YOUTH POLICY AGENDA
1.
The city should continue to invest in the empowerment of barangay health
centers and expand Phileath coverage especially to the marginalized youth
Health insurance
is an empowerment tool. It allows the person to be free from the fear of
getting broke because of sickness. The LGU should continue to sponsor the
health insurance to the poorest of the poor. Hand in hand with the expansion of
health insurance coverage is the improvement of the health care facilities of
the barangay. This is vital in enhancing access health care services to the
grassroots. The LGU should continue to
upgrade the health centers and avail of the maternal health package and other
package programs of the DOH.
|
TERM
|
PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
|
|
|
EXECUTIVE
|
LEGISLATIVE
|
|
|
Short
|
Increase Philhealth coverage by 20%
|
Budgetary Support
|
|
Medium
|
Continuous upgrading of JR Borja
Hospital and barangay health centers in major and far-flung barangays
|
Budgetary Support
|
|
Long
|
|
|
2.
The city should continue to invest in child nutrition and strengthen and
Monitor the implementation of in-school hygiene programs
The nutritional state of the child
is a major determinant on his life trajectory. The LGU coursed through the
schools and health care centers should continue to invest in child nutrition
through regular checkups, feeding programs and vaccination among others. The
present partnership of private corporations and NGOs with government should be
brought to greater light so other organizations can follow. The Busog Lusog
Talino program of the Jollibee Group Foundation is an example of such and this
should be expanded to other schools specially the far-flung areas. Presently,
the DepEd implements school sponsored tooth brushing and hand washing programs
in school. This is a vital intervention since the main cause of absenteeism is
toothache and fever, which are preventable. The school should incorporate the
students through their student government in the decision-making process in the
implementation of these programs and conduct periodic reports.
|
TERM
|
PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
|
|
|
EXECUTIVE
|
LEGISLATIVE
|
|
|
Short
|
Report to School Board on the status
of the hygiene programs of the public schools
|
|
|
Medium
|
Expand feeding programs of day care
centers and other schools in partnership with private sector
|
|
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Long
|
3rd part monitoring on the
implementation of the hygine programs
|
|
3.
The city should adopt a comprehensive program aimed at reducing the
presence of street children and return them to productive life
The presence of abandoned kids and
vagabonds in our streets is an indication of something fundamentally wrong in
how a society structures itself. In the youth’s end, it is a reality that most
has grown callous about – it just the way things are. However as sighted during
the convergence, there are inspiring stories of hope where youth organizations
made a difference in the lives of street children. For these efforts to be
sustainable, it requires the government to provide resources augmented by
policy. The youth leaders call on the government to assess its present
profiling system for the street kids and build a child friendly center near the
city center where these street kids can freely visit and where youth volunteers
can provide free tutorials and other fun activities. We should get away from
the mentality of forcing them away from the streets but rather build
infrastructure and create programs that invites them to enter and learn. Best
practices of other cities regarding this matter should also be explored.
|
TERM
|
PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
|
|
|
EXECUTIVE
|
LEGISLATIVE
|
|
|
Short
|
Implementation of the Curfew for
Minors with 3rd party monitoring
|
Support by the barangays
|
|
Medium
|
Complete profiling of street kids
|
|
|
Long
|
Construction and of a home or play
are for street kids where they can slowly be formed back to productive life
|
Budgetary support
|
4.
Intensify proper and age appropriate sex education to curve the growing
cases of HIV-AIDS and address increasing cases of teenage Pregnancy.
Teenage pregnancy is a defining
issue in our generation. Incidence of teenage childbirth has more than
doubled over the past decade. That is, among girls aged 15 to 19, whereas only
6.3% were already mothers in 2002, by 2012 around 13.6% were already mothers.
Second (and expectedly), premarital sex among the youth is also on the rise: In
2002, only 23.2% of youth have engaged in premarital sex, but in 2013 this has
increased to 32% (amounting to about 6.2 million youth).[1] Third, while both
teenage males and females have become more likely to engage in premarital sex,
the gap between the sexes has declined over the past decade. And fourth, a
whopping 78% of first instances of premarital sex were unprotected (not only
against unwanted pregnancy but also sexually transmitted diseases).
Surprisingly, girls were more likely to not use any form of protection during
their first sexual encounters.
Health officials said Northern
Mindanao is now a hot spot for Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Acquired
Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV-AIDS) after 30 new cases were recorded in the
first quarter of the year alone. Dr. Evelyn Magsayo, sexually transmitted
infection prevention control program officer for the Department of Health (DOH)
in Northern Mindanao, described the transmission of HIV in the region as
“fast and furious.” She illustrated how fast the disease was spreading by
saying that in 2008, there were just 45 cases of HIV recorded in the region.
Twenty-four cases were recorded for the whole year of 2009, which pushed the
figure up at 69. But for the first quarter of this year alone, 30 cases have
already been recorded, she said.[2]
With these realities, the youth leaders
understand that in their level, education is the number one tool in curving
this rising trend. Government should make it easier for youth organizations
that specialize in education campaigns to access resources such as knowledge
materials and make it easier for them to connect with barangay leaders and
grassroots youth organization.
|
TERM
|
PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
|
|
|
EXECUTIVE
|
LEGISLATIVE
|
|
|
Short
|
Creation of HIV-AIDS multi-sectoral
taskforce
|
|
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Medium
|
Increase education campaign for
HIV-AIDS and proper reproductive health education by 20%
|
|
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Long
|
Creation
Center for HIV-AIDS Local Action Center
|
|
ORO YOUTH DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL ACTION
Barangay Youth Health Conferences
The OYDC should create a data bank of contacts
of barangay leaders and grassroots youth organizations to connect the
grassroots and the advocacy groups. Once this is established, the OYDC with its
partners shall pilot 10 barangays where these conferences will be conducted.
This conference includes talks on Philhealth, HIV and Teenage Pregnancies.
Participants are barangay youth leaders.
Youth Groups sponsored feeding
programs
A mechanism that will connect Barangay based youth organizations and the
local government unit to provide sacks of rice for youth groups who are
interested in organizing a sustainable feeding program. This however should be aligned with the over
all city feeding program plan by the CSWD.
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