Adolescents rarely find a good doctor

Young people often look for suitable specialists for a long time

19/12/2013

Adolescents suffering from a serious, chronic or incurable disease often find it difficult: On the one hand, they are too old for the pediatrician, on the other hand, in the adult medicine often lack the appropriate experts. This makes it difficult, especially for young adults, to find a suitable expert following the care provided by the pediatrician.

Nearly 30% of 12 to 18-year-olds suffer from chronic diseases
About 27 percent of 12 to 18-year-old children and adolescents suffer, according to the President of the Professional Association of Pediatricians, Dr. med. Wolfram Hartmann, currently suffering from a chronic illness such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, rheumatism or metabolic disorders. In the course of childhood, such a disease is usually not a problem, because the usually close connection to a pediatrician small patients are treated accordingly and well cared for. However, with adulthood, this often changes, because then there is a change from a child-centered to an adult-oriented health care - what in medicine as „transition“ referred to as. As a result, the pediatrician is no longer responsible, many young people need because of their clinical pictures but competent specialists to continue to be properly cared for. What remains is often the tedious search for a suitable adult physician - because many of these doctors are not familiar with physical or medical problems of adolescents.

Interdisciplinary teams important to care for chronically ill adolescents in the transition phase
Accordingly, it is difficult for many young adults to find an adult physician who is familiar with the respective clinical picture and so can provide a competent care and care. In childhood, according to Dr. Wolfram Hartmann had been well-suited due to the fluid boundaries between individual specialists for very specific clinical pictures in childhood and adolescence as well as interdisciplinary, close cooperation in outpatient and inpatient care - therefore, according to the expert, this structure must also be retained in later care: „In order to be able to provide these patients without major problems even in adulthood, we need interdisciplinary teams from all three care levels, who jointly care for chronically ill adolescents in the important transition phase between the ages of 16 and 18 and coordinate the therapeutic measures“, so Dr. Wolfram Hartmann in a lecture on the subject „When young patients grow up“.

„In adult medicine, many young people enter a whole new world“
However, many adult health professionals are still not adequately trained to treat young adults with rare chronic illnesses or disabilities. Also, the financial side is always a problem because the often costly treatments of young patients can hardly be accomplished by many adult practitioners. In addition, in the course of the transition, the process of „Abnabelung“ of children and adolescents, which leads to increased conflict and therapies or medications are often simply broken off: „In adult medicine, many young people enter a whole new world. In paediatrics, they were used to accepting the advice given by the pediatrician together with their parents and simply trusting the doctor's treatment prescriptions [...]. In the transitional phase begins this new phase of life in which the young person must be led to decide for himself what happens“, said the head of the Department of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Prof. Dr. med. med. Berthold P. Hauffa.

Trust must be built slowly
Precisely for this reason, the transition must, in the opinion of Prof. Dr. med. Dr. med. Dagmar Führer, the director of the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases at the University Hospital Essen, to be as cautious and competent as possible: „A close relationship of trust must first be built up by us adult [...] practitioners. This starts with very formal things, such as changing the way you address them. And then - of course, adjusted to adulthood - a new treatment concept has to be created. This is getting used to for all sides.“ (No)