Reaching Adolescents with Health Services: Case Studies from Ghana, with Benedict Weobong
Adolescents face unique barriers in accessing health services, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where health systems are often not designed with their needs in mind. These seminar series draw on case studies from two innovative initiatives in Ghana – YMIND and Y-Check – to explore scalable strategies for improving adolescent health service delivery. YMIND focuses on school-based mental health early intervention for depression among adolescents, while Y-Check implements the integration of routine health and wellbeing screening into adolescent health systems. Together, these case studies highlight the importance of co-designed, youth-centered, and context-responsive approaches. The seminars will reflect on implementation experiences, policy implications, and lessons for advancing equitable and integrated adolescent health services in Ghana and beyond.
In preparation for this seminar, Dr. Weobong has recommended reading Youth Participatory Research: A Review of Reviews and Practice Guidance.
Speaker Profile
Dr. Benedict Weobong has degrees in psychology, mental health epidemiology from Universities of Ghana and London. As a Global Mental Health epidemiologist and academic, his research portfolio has been informed by the principles of Global Mental Health along six strands: understanding and addressing the social determinants of mental health; developing and evaluating psychological treatments; implementation research in routine primary health care settings; school-based health and wellbeing programs; research agenda setting; and training. His current research laboratory holds three major activities: climate change and mental health; developing measures/tools for relational wellbeing among youth; developing a step-up care intervention to treat depression and anxiety among adolescents in Ghana (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/african-youth-in-mind); evaluating the implementation of a routine health check-up programme for adolescents; and building a critical mass of global mental health researchers through doctoral and post-doctoral training (https://amari-africa.org).
Register below and join us on Wednesday, October 22, at 1:00 p.m. ET
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