Advancing global primary care for adolescents

Family physician Dr. Muna Chowdhury has made a career helping adolescents. A new book, “Working with Adolescents and Young Adults in General Practice: A Guide for Family Physicians”, extends her reach beyond Nova Scotia’s borders, providing a trusted resource for comprehensive adolescent healthcare around the world. 

Dr. Muna Chowdhury came home to Halifax from Toronto during the pandemic to be closer to family.   

With the support of the Nova Scotia Health physician recruitment team, she found her place – building a practice, taking on assistant professor duties at Dalhousie University, and providing addictions medicine and gender-affirming care in Central Zone.  

“My husband doesn’t even know where I am on a given day of the week because I wear so many hats!”, she laughs. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” 

Among her many hats, and true passions, is working with youth. She founded a clinic for adolescents and works out of youth drop-in places and shelters, offering compassionate and wrap-around care to adolescents in the Halifax Regional Municipality. She also serves as chair of a special interest group on adolescent family medicine through the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA), which approached her to contribute and co-edit a new book. 

Improving comprehensive care 

Working with Adolescents and Young Adults in General Practice: A Guide to Family Physicians explores the medical topics one might expect – like diabetes, asthma, mental health, eating disorders, depression and anxiety.  

What’s different is its strengths-based and holistic approach – one that considers individual situation, context, agency and trust. 

“When young people come to see us, often there’s already an imbalance of power. Rebalancing that power and saying ‘you’re the expert in your life. I’m here to help you’ has really helped to open people up.” 

Primary care for adolescents is unique – they have outgrown pediatrics but are not quite ready for adult care. This book addresses the needs of this distinct life stage and emphasizes the important role of agency in decisions that affect care. 

“We want to make sure that the young person is actively engaged in all of their decision-making. We’re not making the decision for them or doing things to them: they are part of it. That’s part of building that trust and open communication.” 

The book also underlines the importance of context in care. 

“Making the diagnosis is important but really having an understanding of the context in which that person’s living is critical, too. For example, if I see someone with diabetes and give them an insulin prescription but don’t know that they’re unhoused – are they even going to be able to afford the insulin? Where are they going to store it?”, she says. “Unless we ask all of these very important questions, the plan we come up with is not going to work.” 

The co-authors and co-editors of the book are clinicians, educators and researchers. Their combined experience and expertise help to inform this holistic view of adolescent care – one that can be applied around the world. 

“The resources could be different, legal frameworks or legal definitions could be different, but the themes are very similar. Youth really want to make sure there is a safe place for them and that they were connected with someone they could trust,” Muna says. 

“Working with Adolescents and Young Adults in General Practice: A Guide for Family Physicians” is available globally through many online retailers, including Amazon, and can be ordered through any major book retailer. 

Photo of Dr. Muna Chowdhury.