Problems Encountered in

Adolescents
Adolescence is characterized by conflicts of values,
emotional stress and readiness to extreme attitudes,
which invariably leads to several psycho-social
problems of adolescents.

• Personal and social problems.

• Problems of health and physical self-esteem.
• Sex and reproductive health problems.
• Home and family related problems.
 Adolescents : Some Facts and Perceptions
• Adolescents between 10-19 years make up one fifth of
India’s population and also a potential group for
contracting HIV.
• Adolescent girls constitute a disproportionate (25%)
portion of the 5 million abortions performed annually.
• Teenagers lack easy access to contraceptives and feel
guilty and embarrassed to use them.
• Cultural practices often involve sexual abuse or
exploitation, and act as barriers to responsible sexuality.
• Boys and girls reveal a poor understanding of their
sexuality and information sources seem to be media and
peers.
Adolescent Health and Guidance Services - proposal
Broad Objective

• To provide health and psycho-social services for adolescents through a

comprehensive Adolescent Health Programme.

Specific Objectives

• To assess health and psychological needs and problems of adolescents through

differential diagnosis;
• To support adolescents to cope with problem behaviour, by providing psychotherapy,
guidance and counselling;
• To promote positive attitudes and values in adolescents for healthy sexual behaviour;
• To enhance adolescent’s potential through various strategies of life skills education;
• To establish linkages with schools, PTAs and civil service organizations in order to
strengthen services for the adolescents; and
• To provide referral services for adolescents with specific health related problems.
 Adolescent Guidance Services Centre
at NIPCCD (Proposed)
Objectives
• Need Assessment of adolescents.
• Provide psycho-social services.
• Development of training modules.
Clients
Adolescents from South Delhi Government & 5-6 private schools
identified as high risk and referred by school Principals, Counsellors,
Social Workers etc.
Services
• Counselling
• Psycho-therapy
• Behaviour modification
• Parental counselling
• Adolescents/students referred
by
• Schools
• Parents
• Peers
• Professionals
We maintain the professional ethics extending
the best of every possible support to achieve
success of every adolescent and his/her
family.

Confidentiality is
assured.
 STEP I- PREPARATORY
WORK OF AGSC

 Survey of Existing AGSCs at Delhi-for designing

a better Adolescent Guidance Service Centre.
 Proposal submitted to Department of family
welfare for WHO support.
Constraints- Lack of Information regarding existing
voluntary organizations working in this area.
 STEP II-STARTING UP OF AGSC
 Formation of An Advisory Committee- Who will
be recommending on various issues and also
monitor the progress of the work etc.
 Dissemination of Information
• A brochure describing special features of AGSC –
prepared and sent to all schools.
• Few knowledge based pamphlets on various issues
of adolescence for persons visiting AGSC
Constraints
Meetings could not be organized due to busy
schedule of experts
Infrastructural Development
Client Friendly Centre
 Waiting room.
 Well equipped therapy room.
 Cubical for multi disciplinary
team of AGSC.
 Appropriate furniture for
storing documents.
Constraints
Difficult government procedures for
construction and procurement of furniture
Staffing- Recruitment of Multi-Disciplinary Team
• Physician
• Clinical Psychologist
• Behavioural Psychologist
• Social worker
• Data entry operator
• Psychiatrist ( Shortage of Psychiatrists
and not willing to come as consultants on
part time-Yet to be appointed)
 STEP III-COLLABORATION AND
NETWORKING WITH PRIVATE AND
GOVT. SCHOOLS OF SOUTH DELHI
 Out of 400 Delhi based private schools, 50
schools were selected .The inclusion criteria
include:
• Schools without any facility for mental health
services.
• Those schools who have not been associated with
any Adolescent Health and Guidance Centre.
• Senior Secondary Co-Education Schools.
 Education Department has been contacted for
seeking permission on to have liaisoning with
Govt. schools.
 Meeting with school principals, counsellors, and
senior teachers.
Constraints
• Did not receive any consent from principals of
schools.
• Delay in getting the permission from Govt.
schools, for data collection, which further delayed
the research work.
• Non- cooperation from private schools.
STEP IV- INDUCTION OF RESERCH
WORK
 An explorative study was conducted with following
objectives :
• Identifying adolescents with problem behavior.
• Identifying major factors affecting adolescent mental health.
• Identifying needs and problems of schools going adolescents.

 A Standardized Youth Self Report (YSR)

questionnaire by Achenbach for the course of data
collection was selected & applied.
 Pre-testing of Youth Self Report (YSR) in Hindi was
done in one of the Private schools of South-West
Delhi.
 STEP V- COMMENCEMENT OF
WORK AT AGSC
 Research Study
• Data collection from various schools ( 3 Govt. and 1
Private School).
• Data processing and Interpretation of data.
 Awareness generation programme on
various psychological problems among
adolescents were conducted in various
schools for parents, teachers as well as
for students.
 Health check-ups and Health talks etc.
 Clinical Activity
• Clients started visiting AGSC
• Various psychological tools have been applied on the clients
depanding on the requirement of the problem.
 Adjunct Therapies are being used
• Nutritional counselling.
• Relaxation therapies.
• Parental counselling.
• Referral services.
Constraints
Clients did not come as per appointment
Principals and Parents did not cooperate initially
Only after Health Check up was arranged in schools through
PGDMCH students.
 MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE
STUDY
Sources Of Daily Stress
• Too many things to do.
• Concerns about weight / physical appearance.
• Doing Home Work / Assignments.
• Parental nagging
• Frequent scolding
• Meeting deadlines
• Making many decisions.
• Attending Tutions/ Tutorials
• Responsibilities outside home.
• Arguing with friends and family.
 Major Identified Problem Behaviour.

• Withdrawn Behaviour
• Somatic complaints
• Anxious/ Depressed
• Social Problems
• Thought Problems
• Attention Problems
• Delinquent Behaviour
• Aggressive Behaviour
Multi-Disciplinary Service Delivery Team

Physician

Clinical Psychologist Counsellor

Psychiatrist Social Worker

(Referral)
Nutritionist

Gynecologist
(Referral) Child Development Expert
 SEX WISE DISTRIBUATION OF DATA

School/ Male Percentage Female Percentage Total

Sex
SKV- 21 3.19 637 96.8 658
Mahipal
pur
GBSS 115 100 0 0 115
Palam
Colony
GBSS 217 100 0 0 217
Raj
Nagar
DPS- 161 51.6 151 48.4 312
R.K.
Puram
Total 514 39.48 788 60.52 1302
 CLASS WISE BISTRIBUTION OF DATA
SKV GBSS Palam GBSS Delhi Public Total
School Mahipalpur Colony School
Raj Nagar  

   

Classes Res. %age Res %age Res. %age Res %age Res.
VIII 196 29.78 76 66.08 35 16.12 192 61.53 499

IX 158 24.01 39 33.92 75 34.56 120 38.47 392

X 123 18.7 0 0 50 23.04 0 0 173

XI 86 13.06 0 0 38 17.51 0 0 124

XII 95 14.43 0 0 19 8.75 0 0 114

Total 658 100 115 100 217 100 312 100 1302
 AGE WISE DISTRIBUTION OF DATA
SKV- GBSS Palam GBSS DPS Total
Schools Mahipalpur Colony

Age Group
Resp. %age Resp. %age Resp. %age Resp. %age Resp.
12-15 Years 445 67.63 102 88.7 125 57.6 312 100 984

16-19 years 213 32.37 13 11.3 92 42.4 0 0 318

Total 658 100 115 100 217 100 312 100 1302
 Psychiatric Morbidity of the Total
Respondents
Schools SKV Palam Raj Nagar DPS Total
Mahipalpur colony

Morbidity Resp %age Resp %age Resp. %age Resp %age Resp.

Low Risk 323 49.09 23 20.00 104 47.93 206 66.02 656

Borderline 115 17.48 42 36.52 45 20.74 38 12.18 240

High Risk 220 33.43 50 43.48 68 31.33 68 21.50 406

Total 658 100 115 100 217 100 312 100 1302
Services
Health check-up and Nutrition Counselling
STRENGTHS
• Non-medical training and research institution
• Multi-disciplinary team
• Support from education department
• Nutrition counselling
• Procurement of tools and recruitment of staff
• Screening and other Psychological tests are adapted & suitable to our
situation
• CGC in position for more than 2 decades.
• Development of Modules for Holistic Development of Adolescent Girls,
Adolescent Health and HIV/AIDS, Trafficking of Children & Women,
FLE etc. for Voluntary sector and ICDS Training.
WEAKNESSES
• High demand of Psychiatrists
• Lack of awareness at all levels for adolescents problems
• Social Stigma – Poor response from girls school even for counselling
services