1. Boston HIV Adolescent Provider and Peer Education Network for Services (HAPPENS) Program.
2. Boston Children’s Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115.
3. The HAPPENS program aims at providing services to the youth between the ages of 13 and 24 who are at high risk of contracting STIs, or those who are already HIV Positive. It focuses on the health of their patients with a view to ensuring the patients lead a normal and healthy lifestyle in light of the conditions. As such, the program offers a wide range of services like free counselling and testing, STI (Chlamydia, Syphilis, and Gonorrhoea) testing for adolescents and young adults up to the age of 24 years. Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) treatment is also offered to young victims of sexual assault. Other related medical services are also available.
4. This program, and the organization greatly contributes to adolescent development. In particular, it promotes adolescent health and well-being as outlined in slide 18 of the lecture notes. The wide range of services that form part of the HAPPENS program ensures that HIV Positive adolescents are not only taught how to live with their condition, but also how to interact with peers as outlined in the Lecture Notes Slide 9. The adolescents are taught the types of food to eat, provided with medicines to take, and exercises to do in order to live a healthy HIV Positive life. In teaching the adolescents how to live and interact with their peers and form friendships (Lecture Notes Slide 10-11), the program eliminates stigma and improves the social lives of these adolescents through ‘positive time’ (Lecture Notes Slide 20) despite their health condition. This goes a long way in alleviating depression and anxiety (Lecture Notes Slide 19) that may have resulted from stigma, thus, an all-rounded healthy life in spite of being HIV Positive. Similarly, the program counsels the youths on how to live a healthy sexual life, avoid contracting STIs, and manage situations that may endanger their lives. It, therefore, suffices to say that the program allows the youth to exploit their full potentialities while leading a normal life regardless of their health conditions.