Young people: lost in transition

We wish to welcome the recent strategy document on participation of young people in RCPCH activities.¹ This document, along with the NSF,² reminds paediatric health care providers to not forget the 13–15% of the population who are growing up and out of paediatrics and moving towards and into adult services. Unfortunately adolescents frequently fall out of the age related inclusion criteria of the former, yet still fulfil the exclusion criteria of the latter. Compounding this problem are the limited training opportunities in adolescent health in the UK. In a survey of staff at Birmingham Children's Hospital, 60% of respondents reported no such training.³ Unfortunately, published UK based literature is of little help to portray the message that adolescent health is important. An audit of general paediatric textbooks (n = 12) available to undergraduate medical students in Birmingham identified only five with a chapter dedicated to adolescent health, representing 2% of the total page count. Furthermore, a review of the 2004 editions of this journal revealed only 4% of original articles and 8% of reviews which specifically addressed adolescent health issues compared to 40% and 32% (respectively) which addressed fetal/neonatal issues.

We are confident that young people who will now participate in future RCPCH activities, like so many of their surveyed counterparts in the UK have done already,⁴ will join us in calling for the development of adolescent friendly health services staffed by professionals who “understand” and are trained to look after them. The current work of the Royal Colleges Adolescent Implementation Group is welcomed as an important driver in this area. Perhaps the editorial board could add their support and change the name of this journal to include young people, rather than limit it to children and neonates! Just as messages are important to today's young people—they are also important to the development of adolescent health!