Specialists ask to increase pediatric care until the age of majority

Do you know the age from which children stop being treated by a pediatrician ?, in our country, this happens at 14 or 16 years old (according to Autonomous Communities).

However, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that child health specialists should follow their patients until they have just matured in every way, and set the limit at 21 years.

Do you think it is exaggerated? What I do not see clearly is that in an age group in which it still depends on adults (they have not finished developing physically, socially or psychologically), they are equated from the sanitary point of view . I think a family doctor should not deal with specific problems of adolescence that can be complicated to address. And with this (that nobody misunderstands me) I don't want to say that teenagers are difficult: I think it is a very beautiful stage during which very important things are learned for autonomous life when they are older, and on the other hand they will live unrepeatable experiences.

Pediatric care also in adolescence

But let's go back to the medical care they need, In most European countries, pediatric care is maintained until 18. According to a comprehensive medical point of view, it is a stage that requires multi and interdisciplinary healthcare.

Pediatricians say that by focusing on the body, adolescence is the healthiest period of life. Although they recognize that the changes that occur, and the treatment of specific problems or situations, they can condition the development of the person and his adult life, that is why they claim to expand pediatric coverage.

This is not a claim aimed at increasing health resources, but at rationalizing current assistance. Dr. Hidalgo (of the Spanish Society of Adolescent Medicine), recognizes the vulnerability of adolescents, which together with the potential risks to which they are exposed, make it necessary to structure medical care at that age through prevention programs, care and plans of performance appropriate to your needs.

Girls and teenage boys are not small children, but neither are adults

Parents should be willing to serve as 'guides' for our children, how old they are (at least until they are adults), however sometimes a certain neglect is observed when the children grow up, this is true in all related issues to its development.

And them they are not the same as when they were still babies or were eight years old: when they grow up they have their first sexual intercourse, eating disorders appear in a higher percentage, drugs (including alcohol) are present, gynecological alterations derived from menarche are observed in girls, etc.

Along with all this, there may be sleep disorders, or (more rarely) chronic fatigue syndrome, and even ADHD symptoms that have gone unnoticed before.

Teenagers have difficulty attending health services

The current organization of health services in Spain breaks the continuity of pediatric care at age 14 or 16, depending on the CCAA, and makes that from that age children and adolescents are attended by family doctors and Internal Medicine services, a care normally for isolated processes, which causes, among other things, that 80% of adolescents have difficulty accessing health services and generates no correspondence between health demand and morbidity.

Lack professionals with training and experience so that the attention is adequate and coordinated. Some of the examples of problems that impede the access of adolescents and medical services are: the bureaucratization of the system, whose procedures affect confidentiality; the lack of attention by the professional, due to lack of training in this area or time problems; the fact that the adolescent denies or underestimates his problems and does not go to the consultation; wave lack of trust and knowledge of health resources available to young people.

WHO places adolescence between the ages of 10 and 19, from this point of view, and also from common sense, pediatric care should be prolonged. As well as families, we should more actively assume our educational role without overly delegating to institutions.

Video: "Pediatric Cardiac Arrest" by Robert Berg, MD for OPENPediatrics (March 2024).