UNICEF Health Officer Oluseyi Olusunde says information, family support, community action and social conditions are as important as medical care in helping young people survive, thrive and reach their full potential.
By Yagana Ali Yola.
When conversations about adolescent health arise, the focus often turns immediately to hospitals, medicines and doctors.
But according to UNICEF Health Officer Oluseyi Olusunde, that approach misses a much larger part of the picture.
In an exclusive interaction on adolescent health and access to healthcare in Adamawa State, Olusunde argued that the health of young people is shaped long before they arrive at a health facility.
What they know, what their families believe, the support they receive at home, the conditions in their communities and their ability to access reliable information can all determine whether an adolescent grows into a healthy and productive adult.
“It’s not only about disease prevention. It’s not only about disease sickness management or treatment,” Olusunde explained. “When we talk about health, we are talking about so many other things that come into play.”
His message offers a broader way of looking at adolescent health in Adamawa—one that moves the conversation beyond the walls of hospitals and into homes, schools and communities.
Health Begins Before the Hospital
For Olusunde, prevention is at the heart of public health.
Clean surroundings, personal hygiene, access to safe water, proper nutrition and timely health information can prevent many conditions before they become serious enough to require hospital treatment.
He pointed to the connection between health and other sectors, including education, poverty, water, sanitation and the environment.
“If water resources fail, there is a problem for health,” he said, explaining that problems in other sectors often eventually become problems for the healthcare system.
Poor sanitation, for instance, can contribute to disease outbreaks, while poverty can prevent families from accessing services or making healthy choices.
This interconnectedness, he said, means that improving health outcomes cannot be left to the health sector alone.
From Surviving to Thriving
One of the most striking aspects of Olusunde’s message is his emphasis on the difference between survival and thriving.
Saving a young person’s life is critical, but he said the ultimate goal should be to ensure that children and adolescents grow into healthy individuals capable of achieving their potential.
“To thrive is to be fully alive, mentally and physically, being able to do things that you are expected to do,” he said.
That means an adolescent should not merely survive childhood, but should be healthy enough to learn, develop skills, participate in society and pursue future opportunities.
It is a distinction that places adolescent health firmly within the broader development agenda of Adamawa State.
The Power of Information
Olusunde repeatedly returned to one issue: knowledge.
He said individuals who have access to accurate health information are better equipped to make decisions for themselves and their families.
A woman who understands the importance of antenatal care, recognises danger signs during pregnancy and understands the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, for example, is more likely to make informed decisions that protect both herself and her child.
The same applies to adolescents.
Young people who understand their bodies, know when to seek medical attention and are aware of available healthcare services are better positioned to protect their health.
This is why Olusunde believes that empowering individuals with knowledge must be treated as an essential part of healthcare delivery.
Families Are Part of the Healthcare System
The UNICEF official also stressed the importance of family support.
He advocated what he described as positive masculinity, encouraging men to become more involved in the healthcare of their wives and children.
He urged husbands to accompany their pregnant wives to health facilities where possible, saying that doing so allows them to hear the same information provided by health workers and understand how best to support their families.
He also highlighted the role of mothers-in-law and other relatives in supporting healthy practices, including exclusive breastfeeding and proper nutrition.
For adolescents, the family can be equally influential.
A supportive home can make it easier for a young person to ask questions and seek help, while fear, stigma or misinformation can push health concerns underground.
Challenging Harmful Practices With Respect
Olusunde acknowledged that cultural beliefs can sometimes influence health decisions.
He recalled experiences in communities where women who had recently delivered were restricted from eating certain foods because of traditional beliefs.
In some cases, new mothers were discouraged from eating vegetables and other nutritious foods during the period when their bodies needed adequate nourishment to recover from childbirth and support breastfeeding.
The solution, he suggested, is not to attack communities or dismiss their traditions, but to engage families and community leaders with evidence-based information.
Health education, he said, should help communities understand which practices protect health and which may unintentionally create risks.
Communities Can Do More
Another important part of Olusunde’s message was community ownership.
He argued that healthcare should not be seen as something government provides while communities simply receive.
Communities, he said, can contribute directly to keeping health services functioning.
He recalled an example of a community where renovation work temporarily displaced a healthcare facility. Rather than allowing services to stop, a resident offered his own house so healthcare workers could continue attending to patients.
In another community, residents organised themselves to provide water to a health facility regularly.
“These are examples of community support,” Olusunde said.
Such gestures may appear small, but they demonstrate how communities can become active partners in improving healthcare delivery.
Adolescents Need Services Designed for Them
While his broader message focused on the many factors that shape health, Olusunde also acknowledged the particular needs of adolescents.
Young people may hesitate to seek care because they are worried about confidentiality, do not know where adolescent-friendly services are available or find healthcare facilities difficult to access.
UNICEF, working with the Adamawa State Government and other partners, is supporting adolescent-friendly spaces in selected healthcare facilities, including Jambutu and Shagari Primary Healthcare Centres.
These spaces provide opportunities for adolescents to interact with health workers and access private counselling and other confidential services.
Olusunde also encouraged greater peer-to-peer engagement, noting that young people often respond positively when health information comes from people within their own age group.
Why the Media Matters
For Olusunde, journalists also have a role to play in changing the health conversation.
He said health reporting should go beyond announcing deaths, disease outbreaks or hospital projects.
Journalists, he argued, need sufficient understanding of maternal, newborn and adolescent health to explain the causes of health problems, their wider consequences and the solutions available.
Better-informed reporting can help communities understand issues that might otherwise remain hidden behind technical medical language.
It can also give young people information that may encourage them to seek help before a health problem becomes an emergency
A Shared Responsibility
Olusunde’s central argument is simple but significant: health does not begin and end in a hospital.
It begins with what a child learns at home, the food they eat, the water they drink, the environment around them, the information available to their family and the support they receive from their community.
For adolescents, it also means having a healthcare system they can trust and spaces where they can ask questions without fear.
As Adamawa continues efforts to improve maternal, newborn and adolescent health, the challenge is therefore not simply to build better healthcare facilities.
It is to build healthier families, better-informed communities and young people who are empowered to take informed decisions about their lives.
Because ultimately, the measure of a healthy society is not just how well it treats illness.
It is how effectively it creates the conditions for its children and adolescents to survive, thrive and fulfil their potential.