Welcome to Adolescence
The Teenager's Office Visit: Information for Parents
Welcome to adolescence! It may seem like it has been a long time in arriving, but now that you have an adolescent of your own, we would like to address some issues that will make your visit to us different than it has been during the elementary school years. We understand that being the parent of an adolescent may at times seem like an insurmountable task. But then the younger years were probably not that smooth going either. This is just another exciting phase in the continuum of parenting that began more than a decade ago when you first found out you were pregnant and going to have a newborn baby to parent! We hope that you have been preparing for this event for the past decade, gradually establishing an atmosphere of trust and communication with your pre-teen (the child from 5-12 years old). While it is important for you to help your child develop decision-making skills and the maturity needed to develop into the self-confident and responsible adult that we each anticipate our child will become.
Adolescents who receive care at Lancaster-Depew Pediatrics are given the same respect. Although we encourage adolescents to share all health-related information with their parents or guardians, we also assure our young patients that any information that they do not wish shared with others will remain confidential. (We also explain that there are some exceptions to this general philosophy, including information, which may impact the safety of the patient or others.)
During your adolescent's health maintenance examination, you will be excused for the adolescent's physical examination to give an opportunity for discussion of any personal matters. You will then be encouraged to join your child for the medical history and to discuss any health issues of concern. If you are unable to be present for your adolescent's appointment, please contact us by phone or letter prior to the examination date regarding any issues that you would like addressed and identify how we may contact you after your child's examination. Also, if you or your adolescent is aware of any major health-related issues that may require an additional time commitment, please schedule this separately from the routine examination so that adequate time may be scheduled for such issues. If an unanticipated issue arises during the health maintenance examination, a follow-up visit may be requested for further evaluation of specific needs.
We hope that this procedure will result in improved health care services for your adolescent and that it will encourage our young patients to gradually become more responsible for their own health care needs. Please support us in this endeavor. If you have any questions regarding your adolescent or our interactions with your child (at any age), please do not hestitate to contact us by phone or to make an appointment to do so.
As a final note, we encourage you to share this information with your adolescent, so that we all will have a common understanding about the role of the adolescent health maintenance examination.
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