Healthy Transitions

A recently published study shows that youths with Autism Spectrum Disorder need help transitioning to adult health care.  Researcher Nancy Cheak-Zamora found that less than a quarter of youths with ASD receive health care transition services compared to about half of youths with other special health care needs.  More needs to be done to understand barriers to care and develop policy and practice guidelines tailored for youth with ASD.

In the meantime, the New York State Institute for Health has created a website for youth and their family caregivers to help them develop skills for transitioning from pediatric to adult healthcare.

HealthyTransitionsNY.org teaches skills and provides tools for care coordination, keeping a health summary, and setting priorities during the transition process. It features video vignettes that demonstrate health transition skills and interactive tools that foster self determination and collaboration.  While the workshops are held in New York there are still plenty of free resources available for all.