TRANSITION IS EVERYONE'S BUSINESS
Dr Melissa Kang, GP and Adolescent Medicine Champion, offers some practical tips to help you stay engaged with young people:
GPs play an important role in a young person’s life as they transition to adult services. How you go about supporting young people with chronic conditions can influence how well they engage with you and your service. Good engagement means they are more likely to adhere to treatment and stay well, reducing unplanned hospital admissions.
Trapeze aims to strengthen links with General Practitioners (GPs). Having a good GP is essential for a young person with a chronic condition. GPs provide a first point of contact for young people and are the gateway to specialist services. Having a GP who will listen to young people and respect their privacy and confidentiality will foster a trusting and open relationship, leading to good engagement and hopefully better health outcomes.
We understand some of the challenges of providing care to young people. For this reason, we have created this section of our website specifically for GPs.
As a GP, you can lead the way with providing a youth friendly service that ensures optimum engagement to keep young people healthy and out of hospital.
ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE IN THEIR HEALTH CARE
Here are some tips on engaging young people:
Tip 1: Make your general practice youth friendly with posters, magazines, and wifi
Tip 2: Treat the young person as the expert. Complete the Young Person’s Checklist with them to see what areas they may need to work on with their self-management
Tip 3: Encourage self-management – talk to the young person about what they know and don’t know
Tip 4: Complete a HEEADSSS interview to identify protective and vulnerable factors
Tip 5: Support the young person to develop their transition plan with their hospital team and identify goals with the young person
Tip 6: Complete a Chronic Disease Management Plan
Tip 7: Be flexible, patient and understanding
Tip 8: Adopt a friendly and non-judgmental attitude to foster a trusting and open relationship
USEFUL TOOLS
We have more Factsheets and Useful Stuff that you may find helpful.