April D McNeill, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Education Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Full Biography
April McNeill-Johnson, MD, Emergency Department, was awarded a two-year, $375,319 KL2 Mentored Career Development Award from National Institutes of Health (National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences) via a Frontiers CTSI subaward.
Dr. McNeill-Johnson’s “Improving Sexual and Reproductive Health Care in the Juvenile Detention Center” will provide critical insight to understand current sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care practices within juvenile detention or correction facilities (JDCF) and unmet SRH needs among detainees.
Dr. McNeill-Johnson explains that there is a critical need to comprehensively assess barriers and facilitators to SRH care in JDCFs. Challenges to general health care for adolescents in JDCFs are well-documented and include recruitment of health care providers, security concerns, tight daily schedules, and adolescent perceptions. However, barriers to SRH care have not been well-documented in the JDCF setting, resulting in a knowledge gap that limits effective SRH care.
The research team will assess current SRH care practices in JDHEs, identify key barriers and facilitators to care, and assess SRH needs of detainees. Research data will be used to create SexHealth-JD, an evidence-based, computerized SRH intervention created specifically for juvenile detention centers.
“This study is an integral step towards sexual and reproductive health equity for detained teens,” she said.
The research builds on her team’s success in improving adolescent SRH health service uptake with SexHealth, the computerized SRH intervention used with adolescents in the pediatric emergency department.
Dr. McNeill-Johnson’s co-primary mentors on this study are Melissa Miller, MD, MSCR, Children’s Mercy, and Megha Ramaswamy PhD, MPH, University of Washington.
The contents are those of the investigator and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by NIH, or the U.S. Government.