Moving from children’s to adult health services is called transitioning to adult services.
Start talking about transitioning with the allergy team and your teenager before it happens.
This may be around the age of 14 years but depends on their health status, their understanding, maturity and readiness to move to adult services. Some teenagers may require support from their parents to transition to adult allergy services, some may choose to do it on their own.
Depending on how often you see the paediatric specialist, you may not have much time to talk with the allergy team about this change. Plan ahead.
Not all teenagers need to immediately move to a specialist adult allergy service.
The paediatric specialist will let you and your child know if they will be transitioned to adult allergy services, or if they will continue care with their GP.
Key points
- Medicare card
- Regular GP
- Responsibility
- Time with health professionals
- Plan and documentation.
General health management
- Help your teenager to get their own Medicare card after they have turned 15. They can choose to either get their own card with the same number or get their own Medicare number. Visit Services Australia to find out more information.
- Your teenager should have a regular GP. Some teenagers are happy to see their family GP, while others prefer to have a different GP.
- Self-manage their allergies. Encourage them to do this by:
- Being responsible for their medications, such as carrying the adrenaline device and ASCIA Action Plan for Anaphylaxis.
- For food allergy – teaching them to:
- Read food labels
- Talk with food service staff about their allergies
- Learn to cook.
Good to know
- Many GPs bulk bill children under the age of 16 years old.
- For information on rights as health consumer, visit healthdirect.
Paediatric allergy specialist appointments
- Make sure the paediatric allergy clinic (hospital or private) has up-to-date GP details so they can send any documents to the GP.
- Give your teenager time with the paediatric specialist without you there. This gives them an opportunity to talk about things they might not want to talk about in front of you. If staff do not offer this, you can ask for it.
- Ask for a clinic letter from the paediatric specialist outlining history and current management. A copy should also be sent to the GP.
- Ask your paediatric specialist:
- Who ongoing allergy care should be with? The GP or adult allergy specialist?
- When should your teenager see the adult allergy specialist or GP? For example, in a year, three years, or if something about their allergies or health changes?
- Will the allergy specialist refer your teenager directly to an adult allergy specialist or are you/your teenagers to find one and ask the GP for a referral?
Referral to adult allergy services
Plan
- There are long wait lists in the public system and in some private clinics. You will need to plan early.
- Referrals can expire. See our Getting a referral to an allergy specialist webpage for further information.
Support
- Remind your teenager that they can choose to take a support person with them when they see an adult allergy specialist or GP.
- They may want to see the doctor by themselves.
- If you are going to support your teenager at the appointment, encourage them to take the lead and have time with the doctor on their own.
- Adult doctors will talk with your teenager and should not be directing questions to you. This is often different to paediatric clinics and can be difficult for some parents and teenagers to get used to.
How much support your teenager will need to transition from children’s to adult allergy service depends on many things. The health system can be confusing and overwhelming so plan early, take it step by step, and ask your paediatric allergy specialist for clear instructions.
For more information on transitioning from children’s to adult allergy services:
- The National Allergy Council: Transition of Care standard
- Allergy250k: Managing your health
- Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA): Transitioning from Paediatric to Adult Care.
Understanding allergy care
Learn about allergy care, seeing an allergy specialist, the Australian health system, treatment options and more.
Developed as part of the Shared Care for Allergy Project, in collaboration with the National Allergy Council through funding from the Australian Government, Department of Health and Aged Care.
