Adolescent Health Care Communication Program (AHCCP)
The Adolescent Health Care Communication Program (AHCCP) has it roots
in the Teen Outreach Reproductive CHallenge (TORCH) program in New York
City. TORCH was the flagship program developed to
help providers and teens work together to improve their communication
and, as a result, the delivery of preventive and clinical services to
adolescents.
The AHCCP has shown that when trained teenagers are given the opportunity to work directly with health care providers, the teens are empowered, becoming more confident and well-informed health care consumers, and the providers gain privileged access to the perspectives of their target population; the providers learn how to better connect with their adolescent patients, while the teens realize that they can trust physicians to help them make healthy, smart choices.
AHCCP Grantee Sites
Each year the National Institute gives grants to local organizations across the country that want to implement the AHCCP in their communities and organizations. Read all about current and past sites implementing the AHCCP. Learn more here. AHCCP Updates
September 21, 201 Pauline L. DeMairo, Director of the Adolescent Health Care Communication Program (AHCCP), will present at the Healthy Teen Network Conference, October 11-14, 2011, in Pittsburgh, PA. The workshop, "Talking About Sex: The Adaptability of the Adolescent Health Care Communication Program Across the United States," will focus on the AHCCP
and its adaptability across different national contexts. Read more here.
AHCCP Resources
We offer these innovative activities and resources to help enrich your work with the Adolescent Health Care Communication Program. Access resources here.
The Program
To create a program in which adolescents and health care providers could jointly work to improve their communication, the National Institute for Reproductive Health’s Adolescent Health Care Communication Program (AHCCP) created two projects designed and led by adolescents:
Both practices were preconceived to put adolescents in the driver’s seat, as workshop facilitators and standardized patients.Through these two projects, providers of adolescent health care gain the opportunity to interface directly with their target population, and benefit from the insight and advice that trained teens can offer. In addition teens learn how to access better health care.
