Youth Health and Health

Policies for Young People in

Latin America and the
Caribbean
INYR, Vienna Meeting
22-23 September 2009
Vânia Reis
Young people ’ s health will
be analyzed in two
aspects :
Suicide Among Young
People
• Argentina • Chile
– 3 million minors – Mortality rates
thought about among street
or tried to children are 11
suicide times higher than
– About 11 million those among
have received other children.
treatment for Almost half of
depression them are from
(2002) suicide.
• Mexico – Main causes: lack of
home and
– National Program substances abuse
to Prevent and
Fight Against • Colombia
Suicide Among – Young people’s
Young People suicide in
– Suicide: third indigenous
 Percentage of Suicide of young people in
Latin America and the Caribbean
1995 and 2005 (9 countries)

Countries Sex 1995 2005

15-24 25-34 All ages 15-24 25-34 All ages
years old years old years old years old

Argentina ♂ 8,9 9,1 10,0 19,1 15,0 12,7

♀ 3,3 2,6 2,9 4,5 3,5 3,4
Brazil ♂ 6,4 9,3 5,9 7,1 10,0 6,9
1994/2004 ♀ 2,4 2,2 1,6 2,3 2,3 1,8
Chile ♂ 12,2 15,1 11,3 18,7 23,0 17,4
♀ 2,7 1,6 1,7 4,5 4,1 3,4
Costa Rica ♂ 11,8 14,7 9,7 10,0 14,0 10,6
♀ 4,0 2,4 2,1 3,4 2,1 1,9
Cuba ♂ 14,6 24,8 25,6 6,9 15,1 18,6
♀ 17,9 14,8 14,9 4,6 4,0 6,2
El Salvador ♂ 17,4 18,6 11,6 16,3 14,9 10,3
1999/2005 ♀ 14,4 5,7 5,4 10,4 3,7 3,5
Ecuador ♂ 9,6 10,8 6,4 16,2 14,8 10,4
♀ 8,2 4,9 3,2 11,3 4,4 4,0
Guatemala ♂ 4,4 5,1 2,6 5,9 6,3 3,1
1994/2004 ♀ 1,1 0,6 0,4 2,2 1,4 1,1
México ♂ 7,6 9,2 5,4 10,3 11,2 7,0
♀ 2,0 1,2 1,0 2,8 1,7 1,4
Main Causes of Suicide among
Young People
 Suicide Is Underestimated

• Some reasons:
– It’s surrounded by taboos and
prejudices
– The manifestations of auto-
destructive tendencies are
subtle
– It constitutes an accusation
about the unsustainability of
experienced life
Young People’s Sexual and
Reproductive Health
Priorities of Public Policies
Some factor that contribute
to those figures
• Maintenance of • Search of young
social expectations women for
over women. Main independency and
one: maternity autonomy
• Lack of financial • Sexual violence,
conditions of sexual harassment
young women to and incest
have access to – Costa Rica: high
contraceptive incest rates
methods
– Peru: 50% of
• Lack of privacy of young women
young women have had their
before their own first sexual
relation under
family concerning coercion
contraceptive
– Nicaragua: 26%
 Other conditions needed for
safe sex
• Favorable familiar context
• Institutional support offered by
schools, health units, programs
and services of sexual and
reproductive orientation
• Development of the capability to
negotiate with the partner, which
requires: self-valorization, self-
love, knowledge and capacity of
argumentation
Such conditions are from the cultural and
moral spheres
Before an unwanted
pregnancy: suicide or
homicide may occur
Priorities of local or national
social programs
• Orientations about sexuality and
reproduction; distribution of
contraceptives and condoms
• Campaigns in schools against early
pregnancy – lectures, movies,
classes
• Provision of services focusing on
maternal and child care

Young men are excluded

 Reality seems to demand:
• The overcome of the dichotomy
between heath/illness
• The development of the value
dimension in the programs –
prejudices, cultures, different
young people’s practices etc.
• The transformations of
transmitted knowledge into
behaviors
• Evidence of such social demand:
motherhood and fatherhood -
Case studies in ALC show:
– Not always school abandonment
is a result of pregnancy
– Many young man assume their
parenthood with responsibility
– The fact of men not assuming the
relationship with their pregnant
partner requires a better
reflection, which must include
the innovative ways of one
exercising one’s masculinity
•
• There is a great fragility in young
people’s ethical formation


• Retorn of Ethics to the scenario of

reflections and inquietude: building
of social orientation mechanisms

“We begin to work because the death


of our lives leaves a destroyed

sourrounding. Young people are not
prepared to face their problems. The
ones with more iniciative chose the
pandillas while weak ones opt for
suicide.”


 Eduardo Cruz, Asociación Nahual, a group leader

  Thank you very much!


 Muchas gracias!


 Muito obrigada!
