Mind Matters: Bridging psychosocial wellbeing and sexual and reproductive health to improve effective access for empowered adolescents in Argentina

 

In low-resource settings, far too often the intersection of psychosocial wellbeing and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) among adolescents in vulnerable populations is under-addressed. Health systems often fail to provide gender-sensitive and adolescent-friendly services, leading to inadequate SRH knowledge, unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, with concurrent impacts on mental health.

This project aims to create a supportive ecosystem in Tandil, Argentina, that reduces psychosocial barriers, promotes gender-sensitive approaches, and strengthens the link between SRH services and mental health, enhancing the accessibility and quality of adolescents' SRH and mental health services. The team will leverage qualitative and quantitative data to assess the local health system's capacity and the social determinants impacting SRH access. A co-designed, multi-component intervention will include health-care worker training, adolescent empowerment programs and the development of a digital mHealth tool.

SRH service use, knowledge improvement and changes in psychosocial wellbeing will be measured in uninsured adolescents between 10 and 19 years old. The composite outcome that will be assessed includes the increased use of contraception, counselling sessions and condoms. The anticipated impact includes increased gender equity in health outcomes, enhanced mental health and wellbeing, improved accessibility and quality of SRH services and informed policies and practices.

This project is part of a second cohort of research projects in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East and North Africa to support research on the understudied area of the interface between sexual, reproductive and maternal health and mental health.