Visit to the Youth clinic

There are more than 200 youth clinics in Sweden started since 1974.

We visited one such clinic in botkyrka. We learned from the informatition provided to us that they have midwives and councellors who work with youth and not much with the parents. This clinic is mostly visited by the teenagers under the age-group 17 to 23 years . The ones who are above 23 years of age are not allowed to use this clinic.

The teenagers usually come to this clinic to make tests for risk of possibility of getting pregnant, sexually transmitted diseases,etc. Most of those coming here have considered of commiting suicide but still the rate of suicide cases are less in Sweden. The main cause of the thought of commiting suicide is depression and sexually related problems. This clinic also gives depression treatments for the teenagers who come here. If the teenagers have some drug related problems,then they are refered to via a separate clinic.

They also have the Pride Festival -festival for homosexuals.

They test for STDs, pregnancy etc. of the youth and give them the advise necessary. They also have free distribution of contraceptives to the youth. More of girls then boys visit this clinic. This clinic also deals with the conflicts between parents and children.

The guide we had at the clinic is a social worker and has also worked at Pune for some years, so he has a general idea of the problems faced by the Indian youth.At the end of it we were distributed some brochures and were given an idea of the clinic rooms.

By Urvi Khandeparker