This study sought to reflect the history of public health policies aimed at teenagers and young Brazilians. It was discussed , especially, the Adolescent Health Program (PROSAD), with attention to: target population, directing actions to attend teens, variability of proposed goals and staff available to intervene in the population. This study presents a narrative review of the literature on public policy in health for adolescents and youth and the critical analysis of the document PROSAD. The theoretical discussion is organized into three themes: (1) Teenagers and young people in public health policies; (2) Program Adolescent Health (PROSAD) and (3) PROSAD and care to adolescents in practice. The main results indicate that the program not answered all Brazilian adolescents. The joint actions to contemplate the audience submitted fragility referring, mainly, to the protagonism of adolescents in health actions and low variability of goal. The PROSAD recognized the importance of professional training for skilled care to adolescents, however, faced challenges linked to the recognition of adolescent as active and participative. These results indicate the need for reviews with methodological rigor to subsidize path corrections and (re) orientation of strategies for health action aimed at teenager audiences.
Public policies; health; teenagers