Tips for taking control of your health care
You and your doctor
As you grow up it is important to increase your independence. This means developing the skills and confidence to talk to your doctor on your own. You may like to start by seeing the doctor on your own for part of the consultation. This helps you to understand and manage your condition and to increasingly take more responsibility for self care.
You and your parents or carers
You may notice that your parents are asking you to do more things. They may expect you to take on some additional duties in regards to your care, for example making appointments. It's all in the effort to prepare you for adulthood and even if it may not seem so, sometimes it's extremely difficult for parents to look at their children as adults and give them health care responsibilities. If you haven't already, try to accept this as a challenge or a natural progression of things.
Medications
Older adolescents have also learnt to be responsible for their own medications. Knowing the name of your medications, why you need them, and how much you need to take is a great start! Taking them without a reminder from a parent or guardian is the next step! Also very important is knowing how to get a prescription and how to fill it at the hospital pharmacy.
Adolescence and your condition
It is important that you know about your condition and its effect on your growing, changing body. Perhaps there are some questions that you would like to have answered about this.It's important to understand what tests you need to have regularly, why and what the latest results were.
MyHealth Passport
As you grow older, there are some things you will start taking more responsibility for, including being responsible for your own health care and having knowledge and an understanding of your own health care needs. You may like to talk to your team at the hospital about developing your own MyHealth Passport which is a wallet sized document of all your medical information at your finger tips in an emergency or during appointments with another health care professional and you don't want to have to tell your story yet again. It is advisable you create this passport with a doctor or a nurse at the hospital who knows you well so you have correct information on your passport. You are still in charge and must type in the information into the passport yourself. Create a MyHealth Passport. If you choose to create a passport on your own you can do so, however the Royal Children's Hospital will not be held responsible for any incorrect information on the passport.It may in fact be helpful to have the health care professionals support you in creating the passport as you may wish to ask them questions about your health and health care history.
Preperation for transfer
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Become more independent around your health care needs. This includes making your own appointments, having someﾠtime aloneﾠwith your doctor, getting your prescriptions filled and maintaining any medical equipment you need.
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Use Health Care Skills Checklist (Word) to see how you can prepare for Transition
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Become more comfortable communicating with health care professionals, rather than relying on Mum or Dad to do all the talking. Practice asking your doctor questions and answering the ones they have.
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Find out about how adult services are different to child health services. Start to check out the adult services in your area in consultation with your doctor. investigate how you can get there and issues such as parking, where you need to go to attend appointments.
- We really encourage all young people to have a regular family doctor, who they trust and who knows them and knows their family. If you need help finding a GP, take a look at the 'Find a GP' webpage: www.rch.org.au/kidsconnect/gp.cfm
Please feel free to discuss these issues or any other concerns with your doctor at the Royal Children's Hospital. The Care manager and/or care coordinator and other members of the medical, nursing and allied health teams are available to talk to you about this process of transition.ﾠ This discussion can happen at your next clinic appointment or you can contact the department.