Smoothing the transition to adult care

Bennett, David L; Towns, Susan J; Steinbeck, Kate S

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2005.tb06751.x

Topics

The most important need is for a change of attitude and approach

Transition is “the purposeful, planned movement of adolescents and young adults with chronic physical and medical conditions from child-centred to adult-orientated health care systems”.1 The importance of transition of young people with chronic health conditions from paediatric to adult care is finally being recognised, but it needs to be addressed in a coordinated and integrated way. In Australia, as internationally, there are some well established and potentially effective transition programs. However, little is known about the efficacy of such programs, as there is little published evaluation.2

1 The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, NSW.
2 Adolescent Medical Consultancy Service, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, NSW.

Correspondence:

Acknowledgements:

We wish to thank Ms Anne Cutler, National Liaison Officer of the Association for the Welfare of Child Health Inc., for her helpful comments, and Ms Lynne Brodie, Program Manager, Transitional Care for Young People with Chronic Illness, Greater Metropolitan Clinical Taskforce, NSW.

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