Transitioning from Children’s Health to Adult Health Services

The way health care is provided in adulthood can feel very different to young people and their families compared to paediatric services. This is because:

• not all young people will need their healthcare to be moved from the Children’s to Adults services. For many, leaving the specialist children’s services will mean
  discharge and support by their primary care provider (the GP). The GP will refer into adult specialist services when your child needs extra support.
• subject to Mental Capacity, from 16, the young person rather than the parent becomes the decision maker. The young person can involve family members or others to support them in this.
• the GP plays a more active role in coordinating healthcare for adults. They will have oversight of the different parts of the medical care and can support with any concerns.

Being discharged from the Children services does not mean that your young person is not accessing a service. There is plenty that can be done to continue to support your young person’s healthcare needs in the adult world.

If your young person’s healthcare is being transferred to an adult provider, some services offer transition clinics which are jointly run by staff from children’s and adult health services.

Take a look at the Ready Steady Go programme guide for further information.