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Teen Transition

Medical Home for the Family

Welcome to your Elite Primary Care Medical Home. A Medical Home is a trusting partnership between a doctor-led health care team and an informed patient and caregiver. As a family medicine practice, we provide quality health care for all ages to include teens and young adults. Teens and young adults need specialized medical care and a doctor with whom they can discuss anything, from normal body growth and development, illness, preventive care, sexual concerns and emotional problems. Their parents also need special guidance and support through these years. Our practice goal is to provide comprehensive health care to our patients and their families.

Elite Primary Care is committed to helping our pediatric patients become better prepared for an adult model of health care at age 18 to continue on with our practice as young adults. At about age 14 we will begin to spend time during the visit without the parent present in order to answer questions, set health goals, and support increasing independence with health care. It is our practice to ask parents to wait outside for part of the interview and encourage the teen to discuss his or her own view of their problem. Talking to teens without the parent also gives teens a chance to ask questions or give information they may feel selfconscious about. Teens often have questions or concerns that they may feel embarrassed to talk about in front of their parents. Please review our teen transition packet together with your child. This will help prepare you both for this transition successfully.

Many teenagers and young adults experiment with high-risk behaviors that can lead to serious problems. Sometimes teenagers will hide their behavior so parents are not the first to find out. Our goal is to help prevent and identify these problems before they become serious.

Tennessee state law requires that some services are offered to teens privately. This includes pregnancy testing and services, contraception, testing for and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse treatment, and mental health counseling. We ask parents to leave for part of the interview for confidentiality and to build trust. We also  encourage the teen to discuss important issues with their parent or guardian.

It is important to know that if a teen is doing anything to hurt themselves or others, or if someone is hurting them, we will be forced to break confidentiality and tell an appropriate adult.

At age 18, youth legally become adults. We respect that many of our young adult patients choose to continue to involve their families in health care decisions.  However, we will no longer be allowed to discuss anything with parents about care or share any personal health information without the young adult’s written consent. To allow others to be involved in health care decisions requires that a signed consent form be completed, which we have at the clinic. If an adolescent has a condition that prevents him/her from making decisions, we encourage families to consider options for supported decisionmaking.

Your health is important to us. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. The staff is always available to discuss health problems or answer questions. Our staff wants to work with you to help your teen(s) make the best choices for a healthy future.