Youth Engagement – Why is young people’s perspective on digital health so crucial?  

Intro

I think each individual on this planet is always going to be an expert in their own experience, and that in and of itself is very valuable.

What is the concept of meaningful youth engagement?

Meaningful youth engagement really consists of two things. One is listening, and the second piece is action. Now, there’s so many young people that come in their various diversities, right? And so one thing I always find interesting is that you’ll have one young person who may come from a certain place in society. Maybe they have different socioeconomic standings. Maybe it might be geographic barriers that they may be facing.

Each person’s challenges and barriers are going to be different. So it’s very important that as we consider this concept of meaningful youth engagement, we’re really considering what are the different types of young people who are affected by this. In healthcare, that’s very broad, and we can continue to escalate that. But who are the main persons who aren’t being listened to and heard right now, and how can we take action to alleviate the issues and challenges that they’re having? Sometimes we’re invited to the table, and then nothing happens after that. So it’s important to take action on the feedback and insights given.

 What are the primary challenges young people face when trying to engage in digital health initiatives?

So I think the first issue that young people face is just a lack of awareness of what opportunities and spaces there are to get involved in. Sometimes these aren’t adequately, you know, socialized or made aware to everyone. The second challenge that is pretty big is going to be resourcing. Because sometimes young people have, you know, lots of different ideas. We are a generation of innovators. But we don’t always have the resources to be able to actually implement it. And I think that leads into the third challenge, which is just about, you know, not always having decision makers being willing to listen to us. They might say, you’re too young, you know, you don’t have enough experience, you don’t know anything. Everyone deserves a space to be able to speak. But I think each individual on this planet is always going to be an expert in their own experience. And that in and of itself is very valuable. You need a young person in, you know, rural Guatemala to tell you what their lived experience is. Or indigenous persons from other areas of Latin America. Or someone living in the Caribbean on an island for their entire life. Like, all these experiences are vastly different. And we need those spaces and those opportunities to be able to share our own experiences.

What advice would you give to youth organizations looking to get involved in digital health?

So as a youth organization, the first thing you want to do is ensure that you are very representative. And, you know, you may have a handful of, representatives within your organization that go out and speak. But you want to ensure that you’ve actually spoken to the communities and the communities of people where you come from. So you want to ensure that if you’re coming from Jamaica, you’re speaking to not just those who are from Kingston like I am, but those were from more rural communities like, St. Elizabeth or Mandeville. So it’s important to have that combined perspective.

So the second point I would give here is around the importance of digital literacy and understanding. And we have to ensure that the solutions or the world that we’re trying to advocate for doesn’t forget the world that we’re currently in right now. And so any community that you’re advocating for, you have to assess where they are today and what tangibly can happen in the next year or two years. Some communities don’t have internet access. Or if they do, some don’t understand how to use a computer adequately. And you have to look at the specific needs of the people there and what’s the next best digital health tool that can assist them.

What are the future trends in digital health from young people’s perspective?

I’ll speak about what young people want to see. And one is going to be a greater focus on mental health. Interestingly, young people all over the world, especially in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean, believe that this is a high interest area. And so I believe we’re going to see more digital health solutions within that space.

The next one is going to be a focus on data privacy and how we communicate how our data is being used on these platforms. I think that that’s something young people want to see so much of. And I hope that policymakers and decision makers and different, you know, private entities will also take that into consideration.