Preparing young people with complex needs and their families for transition to adult services
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Preparing young people with complex needs and their families for transition to adult services

Andrew O’Connell Children and young people’s continuing care transition practitioner, Norfolk Continuing Care Partnership staff nurse, Norwich, England
Julia Petty Senior lecturer in children’s nursing, School of Health and Social Work, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England

Improving survival rates for children and young people with complex health needs requires a robust system for transition to adult services. Effective planning is essential to ensure a smooth transition process that is in the best interests of the young person and their family.

This article discusses the needs and requirements for planned and purposeful transition processes to support young people with complex healthcare needs and their families. It considers the preparation of adult services, the team, the young person and their parents in line with an integrated approach and the nurse’s role. Recommendations for practice include the necessity for an integrated approach to ensure optimum outcomes and ascertaining the potential value of a nurse-led service in delivering the transition process. A carefully tailored planning strategy should be developed to prepare and support young people with complex health needs through transition.

Nursing Children and Young People. doi: 10.7748/ncyp.2018.e1123

Citation

O’Connell A, Petty J (2018) Preparing young people with complex needs and their families for transition to adult services. Nursing Children and Young People. doi: 10.7748/ncyp.2018.e1123

Peer review

This article has been subject to open peer review and has been checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

andrew.o’connell2@nhs.net

Conflict of interest

None declared

Published online: 27 December 2018

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