Barbados is taking a major step forward in prioritizing adolescent health, officially rolling out the comprehensive Yuh Good programme and its dedicated official website yuhgood.gov.bb from Monday, expanding specialized youth health services to seven of the island nation’s nine public polyclinics.
The initiative, designed to serve young people between the ages of 10 and 19, addresses a full spectrum of health needs that are often overlooked in general care settings. Services range from treatment for physical injuries, infectious and chronic non-communicable diseases, and sexual and reproductive health care to specialized support for mental health challenges, self-harm risk, and substance use disorders.
Speaking at the official launch event held at the Frederick Miller Polyclinic in St George’s The Glebe, Minister of Health Davidson Ishmael framed the rollout as a critical milestone for the country’s public health system, marking years of coordinated planning and investment in youth wellbeing. The programme traces its origins to 2025, when Barbados’ Cabinet approved and allocated full funding for the two-year Barbados Adolescent Health Action Plan 2025–2026. This initial framework aligns with the broader 10-year Barbados National Adolescent Strategic Plan, developed in partnership with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to systematically address the unmet health needs of the country’s youth population.
To ensure consistent, high-quality care across all sites, a multidisciplinary national adolescent health working group was convened to develop official care standards for service delivery. “These standards provided the framework for the implementation of the adolescent health clinics at our polyclinics,” Ishmael explained. Specialized adolescent health services were first piloted at three polyclinics – Eunice Gibson, Randall Phillips, and Winston Scott – in 2025. Early data from the pilot phase shows that 111 adolescents accessed care during the initial rollout, 67 percent of whom were between 15 and 19 years old. Of those patients, 60 were referred for additional specialized care: 32 referrals (53 percent) were to general medical practitioners, while 14 (23 percent) were directed to specialized mental health support.
Building on the pilot’s success, the 2026 expansion adds four more clinics – St Philip, Maurice Byer, David Thompson, and Frederick Miller – bringing the total number of polyclinics offering the specialized services to seven. The programme is organized around six core strategic priorities: positive youth development; prevention and care for violence, accidents and injuries; sexual and reproductive health including HIV services; communicable disease management; non-communicable disease care; and mental health, self-harm intervention, and substance use support.
The Shaw Centre for Paediatric Excellence plays a key supporting role, providing specialized training for clinical staff in paediatric and adolescent-focused care. In addition, medical specialists across obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry, and paediatrics have completed targeted subspecialty training to meet the unique needs of adolescent patients.
Chief Nursing Officer Annastasia Jordan emphasized that the Yuh Good programme is more than a clinical initiative – it is a national call to action to center youth voice and wellbeing. “Our vision is that every young person in Barbados will feel confident asking for help when they need it, supported by a strong, skilled nursing workforce and the partnerships that sustain it,” Jordan said. “The Yuh Good Barbados Adolescent Programme is a national commitment to adolescent health, bringing families, communities, advocates and health professionals together. Within the wider effort, nurses will continue through nurse-led initiatives, ensuring people have safe spaces, stress test guidance and professional support.”
Jordan also highlighted a complementary in-school initiative, the Teen Wellness Connect programme, which is delivered through the Ministry of Health’s mobile clinic. “This special clinic offers nutritional counselling, mental health support, healthy lifestyle guidance and coping skills with peer support in settings that are familiar, private and youth-friendly,” she explained. “It removed barriers between care providers and teams, making access to information and guidance on health normal and easy. This initiative, this innovative model of care, allows for the establishment of trust between nurses and adolescents.” The programme is now in its second year and currently operates at two secondary schools across the island.
Minister Ishmael added that community-focused components of the Yuh Good framework also include a school-based suicide prevention programme, alongside Teen Wellness Connect. Both programmes were first piloted in 2025 with fourth- and fifth-form students at Barbados’ two single-sex public secondary schools: Springer Memorial Girls’ School and St Leonard’s Boys’ School. To expand access outside of polyclinic settings, the programme has partnered with local stakeholders including the Barbados Family Planning Association (BFPA) to develop dedicated adolescent health hubs. The first such hub opened on June 1 this year at the Derek Smith School in collaboration with the Eunice Gibson Polyclinic. Programme teams have also led outreach and education sessions at the 2026 National Sports Council camps to reach more young people across the country.
Looking ahead, the national adolescent health working group is partnering with Mission Barbados and the Ministry of Education Transformation, working through student council networks, to scale Teen Wellness Connect and suicide prevention programming to more secondary schools over the next two to three years. For young people and families seeking information online, the full range of programme resources are now available via the newly launched official website at yuhgood.gov.bb.