Effective transition of young people with long-term conditions into adult services

Abstract

Healthcare transition involves the purposeful and planned process of preparing, empowering and supporting young people with long-term conditions and their families when they are moving from child to adult services. Transition is a series of events that provides the young person with the knowledge and skills they require to be able to function in adult services. Until recently little has been done to address the perceived barriers and challenges involved in transition. In this article, the authors discuss the challenges associated with effective transition and describe their experience of implementing a healthcare transition pathway using a quality improvement model.

Keywords: adolescents; child health; innovation; management; nurse-led services; parents; professional; quality assurance.