Hospital-based Services for Young People for GP/Family Medicine professionals

This session explores the needs of young people accessing hospital services. It examines young people friendly services and the advantages and disadvantages of adolescent inpatient wards.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Identify the distinct needs of young people accessing hospital services
• Describe why young people find traditional hospital services difficult to access
• Identify the basic elements of young people friendly hospital services
• Describe the advantages and disadvantages of adolescent inpatient wards
• Identify the strengths and areas for improvement of the service in which you work in relation to young people

Young people repeatedly report a desire for dedicated adolescent services in hospital.

Research suggests that the quality of care and experience of young people are best when they are cared for on wards specifically for their age group. There is now increasing evidence that adolescent wards increase quality of care.