Adolescence
The number of children and adolescents in Russia is decreasing at an alarming 1 million children per year. The current generation of young people has lived through a period of extraordinary change and uncertainty. Multiple factors including increasing poverty and income inequality, deteriorating traditional values, and increasing social disruption and family breakdowns are adversely affecting the health and wellbeing of Russia’s youth. They need the support and encouragement of family and society as well as their peers, yet this is hard come by in a Russia preoccupied with its own economic and social problems. The availability of suitable services and information with a real understanding of the specific needs of Russia’s youth continue to be quite limited. As a result of the added stresses, young people are involved in more risky behaviour leading to an increase in the rates of accidental and violent death, suicide, and alcohol and drug abuse. Russia stands on the threshold of a nationwide HIV/AIDS epidemic. The majority of newly detected HIV cases in Russia are among young people under the age of 25, with the proportion of even younger age groups rapidly increasing. The age at which young people start to inject drugs is falling dramatically, and most HIV positive young people have contracted the infection through intravenous drug injection. Ignorance about the disease, and about preventive measures, is widespread. After-school safe spaces and organized leisure or sports activities are seriously lacking. As a result, young people are at a greater risk of becoming engaged in injecting drugs, unprotected sex or even regular commercial sex work. These young people are especially susceptible to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS. Although the reproductive health of adolescents is stated as a priority issue in the Russian Federation, little has been done to provide young people with the appropriate knowledge and skills necessary to preserve their reproductive health and to protect them from HIV/STIs. A further problem is that most health services are not youth-friendly and because of this young people often prefer not to seek medical treatment or psychological counselling. Young people need increased access to age-appropriate information on HIV/AIDS, sexually-transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies and other risk behaviours and accepting and supportive staff in reachable locations in which to obtain this information. Only then can we hope to protect the lives of young people in Russia.
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