Global Standards for quality health care services for adolescents: Volume 1

This document is part of the Global standards for quality health-care services for adolescents: a guide to implement a standards-driven approach to improve the quality of health-care services for adolescents. It is one of four volumes published separately, which include: 

• Volume 1: Standards and criteria 
• Volume 2: Implementation guide
• Volume 3: Tools to conduct quality and coverage measurement surveys to collect data about compliance with the global standards
• Volume 4: Scoring sheets for data analysis

Volume 1: Standards and Criteria serves as an essential normative guide to help countries improve health service delivery for young people. Recognizing that adolescent healthcare services are frequently fragmented, uncoordinated, and hindered by barriers like a lack of privacy, fear of stigma, and judgmental provider attitudes, this framework introduces a comprehensive, standards-driven approach.

The publication establishes eight global standards that encompass adolescents’ health literacy, community support, an appropriate package of clinical and preventive services, provider competencies, facility characteristics, equity and non-discrimination, data-driven quality improvement, and active adolescent participation.