AHA MISSION/ACTION PLANS 2024
THEME OF THE YEAR
“Reaching the Unreached Adolescents”
It’s a great honor for me to be Chairperson of IAP Adolescent Health Academy for the year 2024.Adolescent Health Academy(AHA) has been one of the very active subchapters of IAP from the time of its inception.
All the respected past chairpersons of IAP-AHA like Prof MKC Nair , Dr Swati Bhave , Dr J S Tuteja , Dr C .P Bansal , Dr Shaji Thomas , Dr SangitaYadav , Dr Preeti Galagali, Dr Ajit Singh Chawla , Dr Harish Pemde , Dr Sukanta Chatterjee have set very high standards by their work.
Our team will try our level best to work towards achieving the goals set in their vision and mission, as we build on the edifice that is AHA.
Adolescence is a critical point of intervention for current, future and intergenerational health.
Realization about this has happened among policy makers ,government ,care takers like parents ,teachers, community workers and pediatricians.
RKSK, IPA ,IAP ,WHO, UNICEF , the stakeholders who are key in uplifting Adolescent Health Care, are planning programs to achieve the goal.
Unless we plan for the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual well being of teenagers ,we can not achieve SDG goals.
Most of the time we miss underprivileged, rural, marginalized (orphans, abandoned, abused, school drop outs, those with special needs, tribal
adolescents because of logistic issues.India is home to 253 million adolescents .Almost 72% of the adolescents reside in rural areas.
We have to realize their needs and plan accordingly. Some of the challenges for them are early marriage , gender discrimination, school drop out, child labor and much more.
Our vision of AHA team 2024 will be “Holistic Well being of Adolescents”
All aspects of Adolescent Health have to be promoted and the concept of Expanded Adolescent Friendly Health Services facility, meaning extending the scope of community health centers beyond the pediatric facility, have to be established. Transition to adult care should be accomplished by 18 years of age . Strategies have to be planned accordingly to fulfill our vision. Extended delivery of adolescent services is AFHS should not be restricted to only clinics but be delivered across various platforms like schools,community health centers, and media.
Our mission will be reaching “Unreached Adolescents”.(THEME OF THE YEAR)
We Pediatricians and Adolescent ambassadors should partner with all the platforms, IAP, policy makers ,NGOs,and help in advocacy of all the programs and help AHA to achieve our mission and vision.
Special thanks to Dr Upendra Kinjawadekar (President IAP 2023) Dr Vineet Saxena (Hon Secretary IAP 2022, 2023 )in providing helping hands wherever it was required .
We request Dr Basavraj G V (President Elect IAP 2023)and his team to support us in our future endeavors. We assure IAP that we will follow all the by -laws , constitutional changes suggested by IAP.
We will continue previous projects of AHA like “Adolescent Health Care Orientation Program”(launched in 2023),E Bulletin of AHA-AdolescenToday, Monthly Webinars on d-IAP platform, publications related to adolescent health, inclusive policy (followed by Dr Sukanta ), and increasing life members of AHA.
It’s a proud moment to convey that AHA is the largest subspeciality branch, with maximum life members of IAP. Major credit goes to Dr J C Garg and Dr RN Sharma for their timely help.
Dr R N Sharma has been recognized as one of the best secretaries who worked diligently and stream lined AHA data and dedicated work.
We are aiming to publish “IAP-AHA Textbook of Adolescent Medicine” during PEDICON 2024 in Kochi. This will be a reference book for practicing pediatricians, academicians ,PGs
IAP -Fellowship in Adolescent Health Care is a dream of many past presidents . ‘Fellowship in Adolescent Health Care’ by Indian College of Pediatricians will be a major agenda of our team.
We need blessings from almighty , teachers , seniors , mentors , well wishers and co-operation of team members , colleagues, juniors!!!
Dr Geeta Patil
AHA Chairperson 2024
Dr Himabindu Singh
AHA Chairperson Elect 2024
Dr Sukanta Chatterjee
Chairperson AHA 2023
Dr Prakash Vir Arya
Hon Secretary AHA 2024, 2025
Dr R N Sharma
Hon Secretary AHA 2022, 2023
Team AHA 2024