School-based health clinics: Improving adolescent sexual and reproductive health in British Columbia - An integrative literature review.

This integrative literature review strives to determine if the delivery of reproductive and sexual health services provided through high school-based primary care clinics can improve BC adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Adolescent sexual and reproductive health not only impacts life-long health; it also has significant societal implications. Although BC has begun to focus on adolescent health, innovative health service solutions are needed to improve adolescents’ health. Systematic search through the University of Northern British Columbia online library databases and Google scholar and the evaluation of the literature using CASP analysis tools resulted in the inclusion of 10 articles. Findings suggest school-based health clinics (SBHCs) decrease barriers that adolescents experience when accessing health services as well as public health system costs. Moreover, SBHCs are an effective mechanism to support adolescent reproductive and sexual health needs, especially in those populations with elevated levels of sexual and reproductive risk factors. However, for SBHCs to be effective, sustainable funding needs to be sourced, and barriers adolescents experience when accessing services need to be evaluated and addressed. SBHCs can complement current adolescent-friendly services to meet this unique population’s needs; however, further research is needed. More robust research on various demographics, health outcomes, and Canadian-based examination is required to strengthen SBHC implementation recommendations.