Teen Health Clinic
Recognizing that adolescents and young adults living in poverty have been largely excluded from the health care system, the Teen Health Clinic focuses its efforts on providing access to quality health care to adolescents and young adults from low-income families. The Teen Health Clinic provides a medical home for low-income adolescents and young adults ages 11-21.
The emphasis of the Teen Health Clinic is on prevention, early treatment and follow-up through a combination of medical care, psychosocial support services and health promotion programming. Located at 1245 Elm Street in the Child Health Services Building, the Teen Health Clinic is open every day for ancillary services and the provision of follow-up and the medical staff is available for appointment and walk-in on Mondays from 1 pm to 4 pm and Tuesdays from 12 pm to 7 pm.
Services Provided at the Teen Health Clinic Include:
- Annual physical exams, including checkups for sports, work, school and camp
- Care when you are sick
- Immunizations
- Hearing and vision screening
- Nutrition
- Confidential reproductive health services
- Help when you're feeling like you just can't manage on your own
In addition, the Teen Health Clinic provides a range of programs for adolescents and adults in the greater Manchester community, including:
- Manchester Youth Theater: Child Health Services founded The Manchester Youth Theater (MYT) in 1988 to give voice to youth perspectives and increase awareness of the complex issues facing today's youth. MYT's cast of 15-20 high school aged students develop realistic scenes based on their own ideas and experiences, and performs the scenes for audiences throughout the state of New Hampshire. Each year MYT stages over 20 performances reaching an audience in excess of 2,500 youth and adults. These scenes focus on a range of topics of interest to adolescents, including substance use, sexual decision-making, teen pregnancy, family communication, child abuse, juvenile crime, and peer pressure. Following the presentation of the scenes, the cast solicits comments and questions from the audience about the issues presented, how they felt about the events depicted, the anticipated outcomes, and realistic options for resolving similar situations. The Teen Health Clinic works collaboratively with the MYT and its director Cat Allard on the implementation of this successful and popular program.
- Youth Development Center: In an effort to strengthen medical services available to youth served by the YDC, the Teen Heath Clinic provides limited reproductive health care services one afternoon a week on site at Manchester's Youth Development Center.
The Teen Health Clinic collaborates with several local organizations such as: Youth Empowerment Program, Child and Family Services Street Outreach Program, Boys & Girls Club of Manchester, Greater Manchester Family YMCA, YWCA Manchester, Makin' It Happen