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The perceptions of adolescents on the use of HIV youth friendly centre in Maseru, Lesotho

This qualitative exploratory study explored adolescents’ perceptions of the HIV youth
friendly centre at a hospital in Lesotho in order to improve adolescent-friendly health care
services in Lesotho. Data was obtained through interviewing nine purposively selected
adolescents aged 18–19 years who accessed health care services at the centre, and was
analysed using an adapted version of Colaizzi’s seven-step thematic analysis. Six themes
emerged from this study: attributes experienced during adolescents’ visits to health care
facilities, adolescents’ perceptions of the health care facility, waiting times, facts related
to HIV pre-test counselling, description of services available for adolescents’ health, and
challenges faced by adolescents in relation to their HIV positive status. The adolescents
explained the factors that encouraged them to be tested, and to commit to HIV
management and treatment. The findings showed that it is important to reserve a
dedicated space for adolescents, to provide comprehensive health services at one site,
to ensure adolescents’ privacy and confidentiality, to indicate patient flow clearly, to
indicate the service offering clearly, to offer flexible operating hours and days, to involve
youth in the service provision, to keep queues short, and to establish peer support groups. / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/27004
Date11 1900
CreatorsLekhotsa, Thabiso Alphonce
ContributorsMakua, T.
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDissertation
Format1 online resource (x,110 leaves), application/pdf

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