Adolescent medicine

Abstract

Two health care policy areas precipitated by the political events of 1992 will have major impact on adolescents. The first, the proposed health care reform, will likely affect adolescents' access to health care and may change our country's approach to reproductive health issues and to human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) prevention. Second, comprehensive Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS) were developed to establish multispecialty, interdisciplinary guidelines for a package of clinical preventive services addressing both the traditional physical problems as well as the behavioral and emotional problems experienced by today's youth. GAPS advocates a major expansion of the role of primary care health providers in health promotion and in the prevention of adolescent morbidity and mortality. The potential for optimizing adolescents' physical, psychological, and social health status, and our ability to provide necessary services toward these goals are highly dependent on the political climate. Adolescents' access to care, the