Managua: Establishment of a youth clinic
Cooperation with the clinic on site
Country: Nicaragua
Project leader: Prof. Dr. Hajo Grundmann
Funding amount: 25,000 DM in 1997, 10,000 DM in 1999
Duration: June to December 1997, 1998, 1999
Local project partner: Youth Clinic in Managua
Establishment of a counseling center in Managua as an outpatient department in the children’s and youth clinic, in which young women and men are advised on prevention of unwanted pregnancies, on domestic violence, drugs, sexual abuse and prescribed contraceptives.
The clinic advises socially endangered or stressed young people at selected schools.
The four most frequent causes for the use of psychological counseling are conflicts between parents and children, violence within the family, behavioral and relationship problems, followed by questions of sexual relationships and teenage pregnancies. The number of pregnancies in the schools in which the youth clinic works fell as a result of the consultations. Where advice is given primarily, there are no longer any cases of unwanted pregnancies.
Most young people came to medical advice because of contraceptives (51.02%), but many also because of general health problems (37.9%).
Typical gynecological problems accounted for a comparatively small proportion:
(7.3%, sexually transmitted diseases 1.9%, and prenatal care 1.84%).
It was gratifying that the preventive idea of medical advice could actually be implemented.
In terms of psychological counseling, there was a ten-fold increase in the number of people seeking advice compared to the previous year: in the period from May to October 1999 there were 1,172 counseling sessions
(a large part in groups). There was also an increase in medical advice: from May to October 1999 1,952 people came to the outpatient department.
The majority of the patients (61.9%) were between the ages of 15 and 18 years.
Materra added 25,000 DM to the total costs of the youth clinic in 1997,
in 1999 contributed 10,000 DM.