Promoting Health Care Transitions For Adolescents With Special Health Care Needs And Disabilities

This accessible book outlines best practice and transition strategies to improve the quality of care for children with special health care needs and disabilities moving from adolescence to adulthood. An estimated 21% of U.S adolescents have special health care needs as a result of improving survival rates for children with chronic illnesses and increasing rates of childhood disability. Each year, approximately 750,000 of these adolescents cross into adulthood, with varying success navigating their way from their pediatric care to adult medical care. The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Physicians, and American Society of Internal Medicine, in alignment with IDEA and the Maternal and Child Health Bureaus Healthy People 2010 goals, believe that all adolescents with special health care needs should have a written health care transition plan by the age of 14 years. This book provides professionals with comprehensive information about health-care related aspects of transition planning for adolescents with special health care needs and/or disabilities. It is designed to help professionals working in education, employment, rehabilitation, and medical agencies/settings to overcome barriers to good care and to better prepare adolescents for adulthood using effective transition practices.