Twitter Chat #1

#LancetYouth Twitter Chat  

Our future: a Lancet Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing

Thursday 15th September 2016

In May 2016, the Lancet released Our future: a Lancet Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing to shed light on the unparalleled challenges the 1.8 billion adolescents across the globe are now facing. Beyond sharing compelling data on the state of adolescent health, the report also emphasized the critical need to engage and empower young people as major investors in their own health and the health of all adolescents. The report findings were shared globally, and in the run up to the 71st UN General Assembly (The Sustainable Development Goals: a universal push to transform our world), we hope to advance the conversations around adolescent health. Specifically, now is the time to raise the voices of adolescents who truly can transform our world.


On September 15, 2016 we hosted a #LancetYouth Twitter chat with adolescent health experts behind the Commission.

Themes

  • Empowerment & Protection – How do societies both protect and empower young people to promote healthy outcomes in adolescents and young adults?
  • Engagement – What does meaningful youth engagement really mean?
  • Education – The role of education for health
  • Equity – Who is getting left behind? Where are we missing the mark in regards to adolescent health and wellbeing?

Experts

Professor George Patton, Chair of the Lancet Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing, Professorial Fellow of Adolescent Health Research at the University of Melbourne, and an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow. He is the Group Leader of Population Health Studies of Adolescents at MCRI and a Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist at RCH.
Professor Susan Sawyer, is the Group Leader of Health Services Delivery for Adolescents at MCRI and Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health at RCH as well as lead Commissioner of the Lancet Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing.
Mr Dakshitha Wickremarathne, is a young researcher, activist and a development practitioner focusing on sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR), gender equality, youth rights and reconciliation. Dakshitha is a Youth Commissioner in the Lancet Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing and as an Advisor to UN Women’s Global Civil Society Advisory Group. He is the Co-Founder of Youth Advocacy Network Sri Lanka.
Mr Liam Sollis, is Plan International UK’s Policy and Advocacy Manager. He leads the Young Health Programme’s (YHP) policy, advocacy and research in addition to Plan UK’s public engagement on adolescent health. He was previously coordinator of Action for Global Health (AfGH) UK.

The Twitter chat was hosted by NCD Child, the University of Melbourne, and Plan International UK. It was promoted in partnership with the Young Health Programme.

Total tweets: 564 Potential reach: 389.7K Potential impressions: 1.5M Contributors: 126
Lancet Youth Commission graphic