The Thrive Model of adolescent health care

BACKGROUND

Many health outcome indicators of the UK population are deteriorating and compare unfavourably with less prosperous OECD countries. The adolescent population, comprising 1 in 5 of the UK population,¹ is no different, with comparatively poor health indicators relating to physical, sexual, and mental health. The rapid physical and psychosocial changes that occur in adolescence, which influence the health behaviours we see and which many health professionals feel ill equipped to meet, contribute to this.

A study from the Nuffield Trust and Association for Young People’s Health in 2019² highlighted UK death rates from asthma in the 10–24-year age group as being the highest across all 14 European comparator nations, with obesity rates in UK 15–19-year-olds ranking highest too. Similarly, a 2013 UNICEF report concluded that young people in the UK have the poorest levels of sexual health and wellbeing compared with other industrialised nations.³ This was echoed in an analysis of data from the latest British Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3),⁴ which concluded that a substantial proportion of young people in Great Britain were becoming sexually active under circumstances incompatible with positive sexual health. Furthermore, 75% of mental health problems begin below the age of 24 years⁵ and there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the ever-increasing number of mental health issues that this age group faces. This led NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens to state at the NHS Confederation in June 2018 that the UK’s children were being hit by a ‘double epidemic’ of mental …