Skip to main content

Adolescent Health

The Adolescent Health division of Maternal & Child Health addresses the most important health challenges among young people, which include too-early parenthood, intentional and unintentional injury, violence, substance abuse, and access to primary health care.

Target Population: Adolescents aged 11-21, parents of adolescents, community members and organizations, and health and youth service providers.

  • Implements teen pregnancy prevention strategies through community-based teen pregnancy prevention projects.
  • Provides adolescent health services.
  • Develops programs that reduce risk-taking behaviors of adolescents (violence, suicide, unintentional injury, substance use).
  • Promotes the health of adolescents through education, technical assistance and training for adult caregivers, teens, schools, communities, and health and youth service providers.
  • Provides leadership for a legislatively recognized youth suicide prevention task force, providing technical assistance in assessment, policy development and assurance of services.
  • Assists communities and organizations in promoting and building resilience in youth.

  • Prevention education and activities in school and community settings as it relates to teen pregnancy, healthy relationships, and suicide.
  • Enabling services (those services which enable organizations and communities to carry out their programs) include:
    • Let's Talk Month, Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month
    • Assisting youth service agencies in identifying health needs of adolescents.
    • Data dissemination.
  • Population based services include:
    • Violence and suicide prevention in school and community settings.
    • Helping communities become more involved in the daily lives of adolescents.
    • Community-based teen pregnancy prevention projects.
    • Parent and community education.
    • Advocacy for health coverage for adolescents through age 18.
  • Infrastructure building services (those services that work to continually improve programs and services that are delivered to adolescents) include:
    • Technical assistance, training, and evaluation for teen pregnancy prevention projects.
    • Working with schools to help them identify resources for addressing the issues facing their students.
    • Intra- and interagency coordination and collaboration on efforts to address adolescent health issues.
    • Training health professionals in current adolescent health issues.

  • Reduction of births to teens ages 15-19.
  • Reduction of attempted and completed suicides among teens ages 15-19.
  • Promotion and provision of health care, and access to health care for the adolescent population.
  • Promotion and implementation of strategies that will reduce the risk-taking behaviors of adolescents.
  • Involvement of communities in adolescent issues.
  • Provision of coordinated efforts that will reduce morbidity and mortality during adolescence.

Contact Information

Alicia Lincoln, MSW, MSPH
Administrative Program Manager

Mailing Address:
Oklahoma State Department of Health
Childhood and Adolescent Health Division
123 Robert S. Kerr Ave., Suite 1702
Oklahoma City, OK 73102-6406

Physical Address:
Oklahoma State Department of Health
123 Robert S. Kerr Ave.
Oklahoma City, OK

Phone: (405) 426-8085