KIDS Barcelona receives the 2019 Pediatrics Award “Teen PROMISE”
The initiative has been awarded for its efforts to empower teenagers to make health-related decisions
On October 2nd the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) celebrated its official act of the Day of Pediatrics, this year under the slogan “Health of the adolescent. ‘PROMISE’ of Pediatrics ”. During the event, health professionals, parents and teenagers discussed the need to create spaces and tools that help to create a climate of trust where young patients can share and solve their health concerns. Ona Orduña, member of the KIDS Barcelona group and Begonya Nafria, project coordinator, received the “Teen PROMISE” award, with which the AEP recognizes the work of this expert teenagers comittee, active since 2015.
During the event there was a discussion table formed by the Spanish journalist Ane Igartiburu, mother of two teenagers; Dr. Inés Hidalgo, president of the Spanish Society of Adolescent Medicine (SEMA); the author of the book “I will be fragile”, Beatriz Esteban Bravo, and Ona Orduña herself. The round table addressed various aspects related to the need to cultivate a relationship of trust between patients, families and pediatricians, as well as the importance of creating spaces in which teenagers can express their concerns about health and self-care, without fear of without being judged or reprimanded.
The pediatricians agreed that there is an underlying need to train adolescents, adapting the scientific and medical concepts to their age and knowledge, "with the purpose - said Dr. María José Mellado, president of the AEP - to make them, little by little, take control of their decisions in health and self-care, and help them understand that the habits they acquire during adolescence will have an impact, and will be determinants of their health, in their adult life”. For the AEP, a great example of this good training and participatory work is KIDS Barcelona, a group of children and adolescents that act as the Scientific Council of the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona. An initiative that places teenagers at the center of health decisions”, explained Dr. Mellado.