Youth Transition - Health Care

As children and teens grow up, they need to learn how to make good choices that will help them live their life as an adult. As parents, we spend time getting our children prepared for certain parts of adulthood – we teach them to do their own laundry, to cook and clean, and how to drive a car. But do we prepare them for taking responsibility for their health care?

Health care transition is the process of leaving pediatric or child health care services and getting services from adult health care providers. When a child or teen has a special health care need or a disability, he or she should start learning more about their health care needs and services to prepare for when they are older. Some of the things children and teens may need to learn include:

• the name of their health care diagnosis or disability and how it affects their life
• the name of medicine they take and what it is for,
• how to talk to a doctor about how they are feeling or to ask questions.

Starting at age 12 years, Children's Medical Services (CMS) care coordinators will work with you and your child or young adult on getting ready for health care transition.

Contact Information

For more information about health care transition, contact your local CMS Area Office.

Resources

• Parent Transition Checklist This is a shortened version of the CMS Transition Workbooks, parent sections, and can be completed by a care coordinator with a parent, or a parent alone, more easily.
• Family Resource Coalition, Inc. youth and young adult transition information
• Health Care Transition, Institute for Child Health Policy, University of Florida
• Healthy and Ready To Work
• Planning Ahead A Handbook for Parents, Family Members and Guardians of Individuals with Developmental Disabilities
• The 411 on Disability Disclosure: A Workbook for Youth with Disabilities
• The FloridaHATS (Florida Health and Transition Services) brochure provides an overview of many resources that can help parents and teens with many of the questions they may have about transitioning from pediatric/child health care to adult health care including how to better understand health insurance, how to talk with doctors, and how to plan for a healthy future.
• 10 Steps to Successful Health Care Transition provides 10 ways for teens and young adults to ensure they make a smooth transition from pediatric to adult health care.  The steps are in English and Spanish.