§300u–7 Office of Adolescent Health

Summary

Creates an Office of Adolescent Health inside the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, led by a director the Secretary appoints, and the Secretary must work through that director. The Office must coordinate HHS efforts to prevent disease, promote health, provide preventive services, and share health information and education for teens. It will design, support, and evaluate programs; track trends; fund and study research; and train health workers who treat adolescents, especially nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and social workers. It must work with private groups, support projects on prevention, fitness, and sports medicine, and may give grants for demonstration projects to train providers and to reduce youth violence, including teen dating violence and related education on abuse awareness and prevention. Congress authorized $8,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2027. The Office must run a National Information Clearinghouse to share adolescent health information and must make a national plan for improving adolescent health and send the plan and any updates to the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Labor and Human Resources of the Senate. The Secretary must create a Federal Interagency Work Group on Teen Dating Violence and, not later than 120 days after March 15, 2022, appoint members from the Administration for Children and Families, CDC, HRSA, the Department of Education, the Department of Justice, and other agencies as needed. The Work Group must consult state, Tribal, and local experts, victims, and family members of teens killed by a dating partner. It must review federal efforts, find strategies and supports to help state, Tribal, and local responses, recommend improvements and better coordination to Congress, and suggest how to teach middle and high school students about dating violence. The Work Group must send an annual report to the Secretary, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate, and the Committee on Education and Labor of the House of Representatives. Adolescent health here means: illnesses or conditions unique to or more common/serious in teens; conditions where risks or treatments differ for teens or are unknown; and conditions with too little clinical research or data on teens.