Reviewer: Christiane Ellen Stahl, MD (University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine)
Description: This is an ambitious compendium of essays by a range of 44 professionals from around the world on the current status of adolescent health, health promoting services, and related, promising theoretical frameworks, programs, and policies.
Purpose: The intent is to provide translatable information that supports the World Health Organization's vision for an adolescent-inclusive realization of the "right to physical and mental health and well-being, social and economic opportunities, and participation in shaping prosperous and sustainable societies." These are worthy but exceedingly broad objectives, and pose a challenge which is laudably, but only partially, met by the book.
Audience: Both the authors and the intended audience are professionals from a variety of specialties (public health, medicine, social work, nursing) and locales (health professionals training schools, colleges, and healthcare settings around the world). Readers are likely to find a few, but not most, chapters relevant to their interests. For readers devoted to adolescent medical education, chapters of particular use include the one describing Portugal's evolving training programs for adolescent-friendly providers and the ones on juvenile justice, especially if training includes a posting in a juvenile detention clinic setting. The editors are two U.S. academic social workers, both with extensive practice and community-based program development experience, and a European MD, PhD (public health) who is an adolescent expert with the World Health Organization in Geneva. They have assembled a group of authors, most of whom are well-known and published authorities in the field.
Features: The book is divided into four parts, a logical but often duplicative approach. Part one provides "a snapshot of adolescent health and development globally and from selected countries." Part two , on "Adolescent Health Conditions and the Public Health Response," reviews in greater depth the leading causes of ill health and death in adolescence and provides examples of evidence-based interventions and successful public health policies in the areas of mental health, sexual health, nutrition, and chronic illness. Part three, "Adolescent Responsive Health and Social Systems," looks at key functions of health systems from the perspective of adolescents' specific needs and expectations. Part four focuses on school health services and their potential for addressing the majority of adolescents' health needs. Strengths of the book include an excellent summary of global adolescent health statistics, two intriguing chapters on juvenile and restorative justice, and hard to find, country-specific information on a variety of adolescent health-related issues from Japan, Cuba, Chile, India, Portugal, Russia, Albania, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Ukraine. A well-communicated core concern of several chapters is the development of more "adolescent-friendly" healthcare services, specifically the "how-to's" of adolescent-specific healthcare provider training, including assessment of capacity to consent, financial protection for adolescent healthcare, and the impact and promise of digital technologies. Weaker elements include a postmodernist critique of adolescence as a purely social construct, the principal role of which is to scapegoat adolescents. This critique seems quite at odds with the entirety of the book. Some chapters focus primarily on the U.S. to the detriment of a more global perspective. For example, there is a timely chapter on legalizing marijuana in the U.S. that entirely ignores the impact of the drug trade on adolescents in producer countries. Also missing is information about African (other than HIV) or Chinese adolescents, systems, or policies, or the impact of armed conflict, immigration, or climate change. Overall, this book offers a wide-ranging view of adolescent health, related policies, and healthcare services. Unfortunately, the organization of the book and the unevenness of the chapters' quality make it a challenge to read in its entirety. The index seems haphazard and chapter-specific, which limits the book's usefulness as a reference.
Assessment: This is a timely book of ambitious scope and uneven quality that achieves much in bringing together most of the elements that need to be addressed in order to improve adolescent health and development. I am unaware of another book with this breadth of professional and multinational perspectives.
