What to Expect When Transitioning to Adulthood

As we all know, transitioning from adolescence to adulthood can be a challenging, frustrating, rewarding time of life, and this is particularly true for young adults with special health care needs. The goal of health care transition for these young adults is to maximize their lifelong functioning and potential through the provision of high quality, developmentally appropriate health care services that continue uninterrupted as they move from adolescence to adulthood.
 
Clients in the California Children’s Services (CCS) program have serious medical conditions that affect their lives. For some, the effect is small, and for others it is quite significant. Transitioning certain clients with special health care needs from pediatric specialty care and programs to adult health care management can require considerable work and planning while others may need very little assistance and support. Some of our clients may eventually become fully independent in managing their own health care while others will continue to need lifelong assistance. Physicians play a key role in the planning and implementation transition plans for the clients in the CCS Program.
 
CCS nurses, therapists and social workers will work as a team to help our clients to transition to adulthood by connecting them to adult health care professionals. We start these services when our clients turn 14 years old so that we have plenty of time to prepare them for adulthood and adult medical care.

For further information, please call (909) 458-1629.