Mental health needs among adolescents are common, yet commonly unmet, and service delivery
complex due to the developmental stage of the target population
. Knowledge about and availability
of services for adolescents remain too often unrecognised
Such services need to be comprehensive,
integrated, flexible, easily accessible and informal,
in order to be utilised by teenagers
The complexity
of needs and difficulty in service utilisation is even
more pronounced among teenagers who are also
parents
4 Several programmes deliver services for
teenage parents and their children.
Yet, few programmes
are embedded into primary care settings,
are able to provide comprehensive and integrated care
for medical, social and psychiatric needs of teenage
mothers and their young children, also supporting
parenting and the quality of the mother–child relationship.
. The MP group intervention, developed
in a community–university partnership effort over
the past 2 years, aims to provide a comprehensive,
primary-care-based service for teenage mothers and
their children which integrates medical, mental
health and psychosocial care with parenting guidance.