HEALTH EDUCATION NEEDS OF THE YOUTH

Weens goeie algemene gesondheid kom die adolessent dikwels nie met die gesondheidsorgstelsel in aanraking nie. Adolessente het egter baie gesondheidsvoorligtingsbehoeftes waaraan daar nie voldoen word nie. Adolessente het verskeie volwassewordingstake om te verrig en ten opsigte van hul voorligtingsbehoeftes moet die mens as geheel, asook sy omgewing, in ag geneem word. Daarom behoort voorligting aan die jeug fisiese, sielkundige, geestelike, omgewingsen maatskaplike gesondheid in te sluit. Adolessente bied aan ons ’n uitdaging om hulle in hul oorgangsfase vanaf kind na volwassene te ondersteun en verpleegkundiges behoort hierdie gesondheidsvoorligtingsuitdaging te aanvaar.


INTRODUCTION
The W orld H ealth O rganisation has declared th at the year 1985 is the In tern atio n al Y ear of the Y outhyouth being defined as the young people in th e th irteen to twentyfour-year age group.This age group often escapes contact with the m edical and nursing professions b e cause of th eir general good health and therefo re m inim al need for m edical care.H ow ever, the youth in South A frica, both Black and W hite, do have h ealth educational needs th at are to a large degree neg lected and unm et.
Y outh is a perio d o f tim e in which rapid changes occur in the young person.T here is a gradual w ith drawing from the p aren ts and w ork ing tow ards achieving th eir own adult identity.T he end result of adolescence o r youth is for the young person to m ake his own way in the world and to choose a p artn e r with whom to begin a new family.
It has been said th at the youth have five m atu ratio n al tasks to com plete (M itchell, 1980)  Culture is handed down from one generation to the next by the p ro cess of socialisation.
In South Africa, the au th o r be lieves, there exists a situation of cul ture-shock am ongst the Blacks since most young Black South Africans have grown up in urban townships in close contact with W estern civi lisation and its beliefs, norm s, values and attitudes which are very different from rural A frican cul tures.Therefore, m any of the ill nesses and health educational needs of the various groups in South Africa are the sam e, yet the m ethods of education will differ to some degree.
In reviewing the contem porary health educational needs of the youth it is im portant to consider the whole person and his environm ent.Much ill health results from indi vidual and freely chosen patterns of behaviour and life styles.H ealth education of the youth should therefore include education in physical health, mental health, spiri tual health, environm ental health, social health and nutritional health.

PHYSICAL HEALTH
W hen considering physical health it is im portant to be aw are of the physical changes that occur in youth.In girls there is the de velopm ent of breasts, the change in fat distribution and skeletal growth which includes widening of th e hips.M e n s tru a tio n b e g in s a t a b o u t eleven to thirteen years of age.
Boys increase in height and shoulder girth.T here is also a gen eralised musculative developm ent, deepening of the voice and an in crease in the length of the penis with the production of active sp er m atozoa in the sem inal fluid by the age of fourteen.It is well w orth noting that A fricans develop earlier than Caucasians and are therefore sexually m ature at a younger age than Caucasians.
One of the m ajor tasks which the youth have to com plete is m astering of their newly acquired sex drive.The young person has to develop his or h er adult sexual identity.The young person works tow ards a feel ing of freedom to choose a p artner of the opposite sex with whom they can have a m utually satisfying ge nital and intim ate social relation ship (M itchell, 1980).
The increasing availability of oral contraceptives has led to a vast in crease in prem arital sexual relation ships so th at by the age of eighteen few of to day's adolescents are sexu ally inexperienced.The increase in sexual freedom has also led to an in c re a s e in s e x u a lly tr a n s m itte d diseases and the rate of gonorrhoea in particular, is rising.T here is also an increase in unw anted pregnan cies am ong unm arried girls despite the availability of oral contracep tives.
T herefore there is a great need for the youth to be supported and helped to m aster their newly ac quired sex drives.The child, about to en ter youth, should be taught about the physical changes that occur at puberty.M enstruation and the physiology of reproduction should also be taught.E ducators should include the parents, the church, the schoolteacher and the nurse.
A n o ther im portant aspect of physical health in youth is the prob lem of acne.In this regard hygiene is essential and all aspects of hy giene can again be em phasised.Possible causes and treatm ent of acne should also be expounded on and the young person supported psychologically, especially if acne is severe.
The m ost prevalent illness in youth is glandular fever and so the young person needs to be taught the cause of the disease, the signs and sym ptom s, the treatm ent and, above all, the prevention of glandu lar fever.
Sport injuries also bring the young person into contact with the medical team .E ducation about m easures to prevent sport injuries could therefore be useful to the young sportsm an.
Since prevention is b etter than cure, girls should be taught breast self-exam ination to ensure early d e tection of breast carcinom a and lumps.

MENTAL HEALTH
A large num ber of factors influence m ental health.These factors in clude: -biological and physiological fac tors -psychological -environm ental -social influences -adequate housing -full em ploym ent -education -su c c e ssfu l in te r p e r s o n a l r e lationships.
O ne of the conditions m ost prevalent am ongst youth is acute depressive illness.This depressive state could result from the conflicts within the young person resulting from trying to succeed in the m aturational tasks m entioned earlier.
The young person needs an increas ing am ount of psychological sup p o r t, e sp e c ia lly fro m p a r e n ts .Parents often feel confused and in adequate to cope with the strains of youth and would probably benefit from help by professional people who deal with the youth.
M ental health is often a reflection of the individuals' total health, his attitude tow ards him self and his e n vironm ent.T he b etter educated a young person is, the m ore success ful he sees himself, the b etter able he is to adapt, and the b etter will be the interpersonal relationships he enjoys.W hen his environm ent, social influences and em ploym ent are healthy, there is a greater chance of him being m entally healthy as well.

SPIRITUAL HEALTH
Spiritual health is an integral part of the total care of any individual and especially of the youth who finds himself continually seeking purpose in life.Y outh is a period of time when the young person seeks to know life -what it is and w hat it involves.
A lthough he seeks a purpose in life the young person often steers away from the church and from

CURATIONIS
God and tries to find G od in the worldly things outside the church.The university student is confronted with issues of justice and injustice and is continually bom barded with m an's im portance and achieve ments.O ften spiritual conflicts result in physical, em otional or m ental ill health and this m ust be borne in m ind and investigated when dealing with young people.
The young person finds m eaning and purpose in life when he recog nises the existance and the presence of God and he begins to strive after ethical and m oral standards.
It has been said that w hen G od created m ankind.H e left a space that only H e could fill and until God fills that space in the individual he cannot know peace and h ar mony.

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
Today the young person in South Africa is growing up in a highly technological environm ent which influences him.The m ost com m on cause of death in the youth is m otor vehicle accidents and especially m o torcycle accidents.
The highly technological envi ronm ent has also led to an increase in urbanisation am ong the Black population.This has resulted in overcrowding in townships with in adequate housing and w ater sup plies and illnesses of the poor being rife am ong them .T here is also b it terness in the Black youth w hen he sees the social and political advan tages of his W hite counterpart.
Pollution, especially that of the air by large factories, is an o th er problem that threatens the environ m ental health of the young person.O ccupational hazards are an o th er environm ental th reat to health.
A health care w orker has a large responsibility w hen it com es to e n vironm ental health, especially in a large city such as Johannesburg with its large num ber of cars em it ting carbon m onoxide and its fac tories which pum p out large vol umes of sm oke into the air which thousands of South A fricans then have to breathe.Prevention of such pollution should be em phasised to the youth of today so that there may be a healthy youth of tom orrow .
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This article won first prize in the category for student, pupil or en rolled nurses or nursing assistants in the 1985 Johnson and Johnson-Cura- tionis Writing Competition. The topic was " Nursing the Youth" and entries had to be either a case study or a review on one or more of the con temporary health education needs of the youth. • mastering newly acquired sex drives • mastering increasing aggression • resolving the independence-de- pendence dilemma -often
social role which is satisfying for him and his p eers.Few young people get th ro u g h youth w ithout at some tim e feeling lonely and isolated