LSHTM-WHO Short Course on
Adolescent Health in Low and Middle Income Countries
6th to 17th June 2011, LSHTM, London
Introductory Notes for Participants
From: David Ross, Jane Ferguson, Bruce Dick, Isolde Birdthistle (Course Organisers)
Dear Participants
Thank you for choosing to come on this short course. The purpose of this letter is to give you a
brief overview of the course and to highlight some of the operational issues.
The overall aim of this short course is:
To equip participants with the knowledge, conceptual frameworks and tools necessary to
strengthen health sector policies and programmes for adolescent health and development in low
and middle-income countries.
Specifically, the course will:
 Provide a grounding in the epidemiology, evidence-based interventions and delivery
strategies for responding to adolescents’ priority health problems
 Guide participants through the steps necessary for the development and integration of
adolescent health interventions into national health sector policies, programmes and plans
 Outline key challenges and solutions in developing and implementing interventions for
adolescent health in the health sector, including issues of quality, coverage and costs

Equip participants to critically analyse and improve policies and strategies for adolescent
health in their own countries
Teaching staff will include:
Monika Arora (PHFI), Doortje Braeken (IPPF), V Chandra-Mouli (WHO), Bruce Dick
(Independent), Adesegun Fatusi (OAUniv), Jane Ferguson (WHO), Adam Fletcher (LSHTM), Nora
Groce (UCL), Gerison Lansdown (Independent), David Mabey (LSHTM), David Meddings (WHO),
Garett Mehl (WHO), David Ross (LSHTM), Margaret Sheehan (UNICEF)
Unavoidable last minute changes may occur (eg. if the Icelandic volcano erupts again, as
happened last year!).
Course Organisers:
David Ross, IDE, LSHTM, Keppel St (Room 303b), London WC1E 7HT
Email: david.ross@lshtm.ac.uk
Isolde Birdthistle, IDE, LSHTM, Keppel St (Room 303a), London WC1E 7HT
Email: isolde.birdthistle@lshtm.ac.uk
Jane Ferguson, Child and Adolescent Health Department, World Health Organization, 1211 Geneva
27, Switzerland
Email: fergusonj@who.int
Bruce Dick, Independent Consultant, Geneva, Switzerland
Email: bgadick@gmail.com
AHSC 2011 Intro for Participants
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LSHTM-WHO Short Course on
Adolescent Health in Low and Middle Income Countries
6th to 17th June 2011, LSHTM, London
Course Administrator:
Elizabeth (Liz) StClair, Teaching Support Office, Room G4 on the ground floor of the Keppel Street
Building
Email: Elizabeth.StClair@lshtm.ac.uk
Tel: 020.7958.8215
Participants:
We are expecting 12-20 participants. Your colleagues on the course will be some of the most
important resources for your learning, and we hope that you will keep in touch with each other
after the course.
Content:
Adolescent health could be the subject of an entire year’s course, so it will definitely not be
possible to cover everything or to go into things in detail. While we acknowledge that actions by
other sectors such as education, employment, social welfare, etc are critically important to
adolescent health, the specifically focus of this course is on the potential of the health sector to
improve adolescent health in low & middle income countries.
Teaching Methods and Session structure:
The teaching methods combine both presentations by staff and participants, interactive sessions,
and group work where participants share individual experience, questions and learning. We will
be using interactive teaching methods as much as possible, mainly within group work time. We
encourage participants to bear with us if your particular question or point is not given the space it
would deserve, and request you all to be sensitive about not taking more than your fair share the
time available, especially during plenary discussions. Conversely, please do not remain silent if
you have something to contribute; participants on this course will have a vast wealth of skills,
experience and knowledge about adolescent health and your colleagues (and staff) should benefit
from this.
The morning and afternoon sessions are each 3 hours and 15 minutes long (usually 09.1512.30hrs and 14.00-17.30), with half an hour break sometime in the middle of each of these
periods.
Most (probably all) sessions will take place in 15-17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH in three
teaching rooms on the ground floor, and usually in:
Jerry Morris Room B
Presentations by you:
As mentioned, your fellow participants on the course will be very important resources for your
learning during the course. To foster this, as well as the usual introductions, during the first week
of the course there will be the opportunity for each participant who wants to to give a 10-minute
presentation about a programme related to adolescent health in low or middle-income countries
that you have been involved in. This does not have to be a formal presentation, and it is entirely
optional, but last year these talks were a highlight for participants and facilitators alike. If you
would like to take advantage of this opportunity, we would encourage you to prepare something in
advance as the time slots for these presentations are on Days 3 and 4 of Week 1 of the course.
Since the course is very intensive with plenty to absorb and to read, there will be very little time for
you to prepare your talk after the course starts.
AHSC 2011 Intro for Participants
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LSHTM-WHO Short Course on
Adolescent Health in Low and Middle Income Countries
6th to 17th June 2011, LSHTM, London
Communication:
All the key documents and other major communications from the organisers and administrator will
(eventually!) be placed on the LSHTM electronic Blackboard. You are strongly encouraged to
check the blackboard frequently.
If you need to contact someone about the teaching arrangements for the course, please contact
Liz St Clair in the first instance. She may then refer relevant issues or questions to other staff,
such as the Organisers.
Reading materials:
 There are essential readings for each session and also a wider list of additional readings.
These are listed within the Session Outlines.
 Wherever possible, the URL (internet link) will be given for the reading materials. If you
struggle to locate an additional reading, please write this down and email it to
david.ross@lshtm.ac.uk and he will try to make it available for you.
 Note that you are expected to have read all the essential readings by the end of the course,
but you ARE NOT expected to have read all or even most of the additional readings! We give
you a large number of additional readings to allow you to explore issues that you are
particularly interested in.
 Please use the recommended reading materials to prepare or review the content for each
session.
 Some readings will arrive after the course has started.
Two special requests:
1. As mentioned above, time has been allocated on Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th for any
participants who would like to share their thoughts or experience. We urge you to consider
volunteering to give a brief (<10 minutes) talk on some aspect of their previous work on
adolescent health.
2. We are hoping to run this course again in future years. Your constructive feedback on the
course will help us to improve the course for your successors. Time has been allocated for
participants’ feedback on Friday afternoon 17th June. This will be conducted in a
participatory and interactive way, so do please stay for this session so we can learn how to
further improve the course in future years.
We are look forward to working with you on this course and we hope you find it both useful and
enjoyable.
With best wishes,
David Ross, Jane Ferguson, Bruce Dick, Isolde Birdthistle
Course Organisers
AHSC 2011 Intro for Participants
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